* Visiting Iranian official endorses Assad
* Fighters running low on ammunition
* Fighting follows defection of prime minister
ALEPPO, Syria, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Syria's President Bashar
al-Assad won a pledge of support on Tuesday from regional ally
Iran as his forces tried to choke off rebels in the northern
city of Aleppo.
Seeking to restore his authority after suffering the gravest
setbacks so far in the 17-month-old uprising, culminating in the
defection of his prime minister on Monday, Assad was shown on
television meeting a senior Iranian official.
It was the first footage broadcast of the 46-year-old leader
for two weeks, and came a day after Syria's new caretaker prime
minister was televised chairing a hastily called cabinet
session, possibly to rebut reports that other ministers had
deserted along with premier Riyad Hijab.
Saeed Jalili, head of Iran's Supreme National Security
Council, said Iran would not let its close partnership with the
Syrian leadership to be shaken by the uprising or external foes.
"Iran will not allow the axis of resistance, of which it
considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any
way," Syrian television quoted Jalili as saying.
The "axis of resistance" refers to Shi'ite Iran's
anti-Israel alliance with Syria's rulers - from the Alawite
faith which is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam - and the Lebanese
Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war
with Israel in 2006, with Iranian and Syrian support.
Damascus and Tehran have held Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states
and Turkey, all allies of the United States and European powers,
responsible for the bloodshed in Syria by supporting the
overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels. Western powers sympathetic
to the rebels are concerned that anti-Western Sunni Islamists
could benefit from a victory for the anti-Assad forces.
Iran's Fars news agency said Jalili told Assad that Iran was
prepared to provide humanitarian aid to Syria.
On a fence-mending visit to Turkey, Iranian Foreign Minister
Ali Akbar Salehi said he wanted to work with Ankara to resolve
the crisis. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described as
"worrying" a comment on Monday by Tehran's top general, who
blamed Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for bloodshed in Syria.
Iran has expressed fears for more than 40 Iranians it says
are religious pilgrims kidnapped by rebels from a bus in
Damascus while visiting Shi'ite shrines. Salehi wrote to U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seeking his help to free them.
Rebels say they suspect the captives were troops sent to
help Assad. A rebel spokesman in the Damascus area said on
Monday three of the Iranians had been killed by government
shelling. He initially said the rest would be executed if the
shelling did not stop but later said they were being questioned.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, without naming Iran
or Sunni powers, warned against a descent into "sectarian
warfare" and said Washington would not tolerate "sending in
proxies or terrorist fighters" to "exploit" Syria's conflict.
REBEL AMMUNITION
In Aleppo, rebels trying to fight off an army offensive said
they were running low on ammunition as Assad's forces tried to
encircle their stronghold in the southern approaches to the
country's biggest city.
Assad has reinforced his troops in preparation for an
assault to recapture rebel-held districts of Aleppo after
repelling fighters from most of Damascus.
"The Syrian army is trying to encircle us from two sides of
Salaheddine," said Sheikh Tawfiq, one of the rebel commanders,
referring to the southwestern Aleppo neighbourhood which has
seen heavy fighting over the last week.
Mortar fire and tank shells exploded across the district
early on Tuesday, forcing rebel fighters to take cover in
crumbling buildings and rubble-strewn alleyways.
Tanks have entered parts of Salaheddine and army snipers,
using the cover of heavy bombardment, deployed on rooftops,
hindering rebel movements.
Another rebel commander, Abu Ali, said snipers at the main
Saleheddine traffic roundabout were preventing the rebels from
bringing in reinforcements and supplies. He said five of his
fighters were killed on Monday and 20 wounded.
But rebels said they were still holding the main streets of
Salaheddine.
A fighter jet pounded targets in the eastern districts of
Aleppo and shelling could be heard in the early morning, an
activist in Aleppo said.
"Two families, about 14 people in total, were believed
killed when a shell hit their home and it collapsed this
morning," the activist said. The house was one street away from
a school being used as a base by rebels, he said.
PREMIER DEFECTS
As Assad's forces battle to retake Aleppo, fighting has
continued across the country. The Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights, which monitors the violence, said more than 270 people -
including 62 soldiers - were killed in Syria on Monday, one of
the highest death tolls in an uprising in which activists reckon
at least 18,000 have died.
Sixty-four of those killed on Monday died in the city of
Aleppo and its surrounding province, the Observatory said.
The president has suffered a series of blows in the last
three weeks, from the bombing of his inner circle to the rebel
gains in Aleppo, at border crossings and briefly in Damascus.
On Monday, Hijab denounced Assad's "terrorist regime" after
fleeing the country.
The defection of Hijab, who like most of the opposition
hails from the Sunni Muslim majority, was a further sign of the
isolation of Assad's government around an inner core of powerful
members of his minority Alawite sect.
Opposition figures, buoyant despite setbacks in recent weeks
of fighting, spoke of an extensive and long-planned operation to
spirit Hijab and his extended family over the Jordanian border.
A spokesman for U.S. President Barack Obama hailed Hijab's
defection as a sign that the 40-year rule of Assad's family was
"crumbling from within" and said he should step down.
Western leaders' repeated predictions of Assad's imminent
collapse have so far proven premature, however.
The security forces have overwhelming superiority in
firepower, which they have wielded against lightly armed rebels.
Hijab's defection was the latest sign of Sunnis abandoning
Assad, but there has been no sign yet that members of his mainly
Alawite ruling inner circle are losing their will to fight on.