* Assad's forces bombard Aleppo, storm town in oil-producing
east
* New Syria envoy Brahimi: need to clarify UN support for
mission
* Assad's deputy Shara "welcomes Brahimi appointment"
* U.N. to maintain "liaison office" in Damascus
BEIRUT, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Syria dismissed reports that
President Bashar al-Assad's deputy had defected and its forces
pursued an offensive against rebels, bombarding parts of Aleppo
in the north and attacking an insurgent-held town in the
oil-producing east.
Vice-President Farouq al-Shara "never thought for a moment
about leaving the country", said a statement from his office
broadcast on state television on Saturday in response to reports
that the veteran Baath Party loyalist had tried to defect to
Jordan.
Assad, battling a 17-month-old rebellion led by Syria's
Sunni Muslim majority, has been abandoned by a number of senior
officials, including prime minister Riyadh Hijab two weeks ago.
Shara, whose cousin - an intelligence officer - announced
his own defection on Thursday, is a Sunni Muslim from Deraa
province where the revolt began against Assad, a member of the
minority Alawite sect that is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
The 73-year-old former foreign minister kept a low profile
as the rebellion mushroomed but appeared in public last month at
a state funeral for three of Assad's top security officials
killed in a bomb attack in Damascus.
The statement said he had worked since the start of the
uprising to find a peaceful, political solution and welcomed the
appointment of Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi as a new
international mediator for Syria.
Brahimi, who hesitated for days before accepting a job that
France's U.N. envoy Gerard Araud called an "impossible mission",
will replace former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is
leaving at the end of the month.
Annan's six-point plan to stop the violence and advance
towards political negotiations was based on an April ceasefire
agreement which never took hold. The conflict has deepened since
then with both sides stepping up attacks.
Assad's forces have resorted increasingly to air power to
hold back lightly armed insurgents in the capital Damascus and
Aleppo, a northern commercial hub. More than 18,000 people have
died in the bloodshed and about 170,000 have fled the country,
according to the United Nations.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army
bombarded neighbourhoods in Aleppo. Rebels hold several
districts in the country's largest city and have tried to push
back an army counter-offensive.
State television said soldiers "cleared terrorists and
mercenaries" - terms used by authorities to describe Assad's
armed opponents - from the western district of Saif al-Dawla,
where some of the heaviest fighting has taken place.
Internet footage which activists said was filmed in Saif
al-Dawla on Saturday showed a plane making a low pass over
buildings and dropping two bombs.
The Observatory also said at least 20 armoured vehicles
moved into the eastern town of Mayadeen in Deir al-Zor province,
where Syria's 200,000 barrels per day of oil are produced.
More than 130 people were killed in Syria on Saturday, it
said, including 15 in Deir al-Zor.
In the town of Tel, north of Damascus, local activists said
the bodies of 40 people killed by bombardment were gathered
together for a joint burial. A picture showed what appeared to
be several corpses wrapped in colourful blankets on a street.
OBSERVERS SET TO LEAVE
Brahimi will have a new title, Joint Special Representative
for Syria. Diplomats said this was to distance him from Annan,
who complained that his peaceful transition plan was crippled by
divisions between Western powers - who want Assad out - and
Russia, his most important ally - in the U.N. Security Council.
Describing the situation in Syria as "absolutely terrible",
Brahimi told Reuters he urgently needed to clarify what support
the United Nations can give him and said it was too soon to say
whether Assad should step down - in contrast to Annan who said
it was clear the Syrian leader "must leave office".
The last U.N. observers who deployed in Syria four months
ago to monitor Annan's failed ceasefire will leave after
midnight on Sunday, when their mandate expires.
They will leave a "liaison office" open in Damascus after
their departure, though its size and role have not been
finalised, a U.N. spokeswoman said.