Ozan Kose / AFP - Getty Images

Ghassan Hitto, speaking to reporters after his March 18 election as Syria's interim prime minister.

He is a “straight shooter” from Texas who worked as a telecoms executive until November. But Ghassan Hitto now finds himself the presumptive caretaker-leader of Syria as world powers plot the end of Bashar Assad’s crumbling regime.

The American citizen, born in Syria, is the new prime minister of the opposition’s interim government – the apparatus that the international community hopes will seal the end of Assad’s rule.

Friends describe Hitto, 50, as “sincere” and “practical,” but the charismatic technocrat will need all the charm he can muster to unify Syria’s fragmented opposition.

His rapid rise has prompted questions about how the deadly conflict should end and has cast a light on infighting, fueled by regional countries purportedly supporting certain opposition figures.

The Free Syrian Army, one of the key rebel groups fighting Assad’s forces on the ground inside Syria, responded to Hitto’s appointment in Istanbul on March 18 by refusing to recognize his authority.

“The situation there is so dire, I’m afraid for him,” said Mustafa Carroll, who worked alongside Hitto in Texas as a volunteer at Muslim advocacy groups. “It’s a big responsibility and it’s very complicated.”

“He’s a straight shooter, very sincere, very well-regarded and a very active community person,” said Carroll, who is director of the Houston chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations.

Seen as Muslim Brotherhood's pick
Hitto, a father of four, lived in the U.S. for three decades, most recently on the outskirts of Dallas working as director of operations for telecoms supplier Inovar, where co-worker Arshad Syed remembers him as "honest" and "personable."

He left Syria in the early 1980s and received an MBA at Indiana Wesleyan University on top of a degree in computer science and mathematics from Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Strongly active in community groups, he was a member of the board of directors at the private Islamic school Bright Horizons Academy, in Garland, Texas, where his wife Suzanne still teaches English.

In November, he made the decision to get involved in the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces -- the international grouping that seeks to end Syria’s civil war on the condition that Assad is removed from power.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

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“Like a lot of people living away, he just wanted to help his homeland,” said Carroll.

Hitto’s wife did not return calls, but the academy issued a statement describing him as “a practical man with great management experience.”

It said: “He was always open minded and open to debate. He conducted himself with the highest honesty and integrity. His talent for bringing people together for the common good will be missed in our community.”

Hitto, a respected technocrat but an inexperienced politician, won the overwhelming number of votes from those who cast a ballot -- other possible candidates that included a former Syrian regime official -- but some members of the Coalition boycotted the vote in protest at the process.

Not everyone was convinced the opposition needed an interim government, seeing it as yet another organization that could compete for control of a post-Assad Syria.

Official spokesman Walid al-Bunni walked out of the vote in protest and Moaz al-Khatib, president of the Coalition, resigned and had to be persuaded back on board just in time for the Arab Summit in Doha, which began Tuesday.

“Hitto’s whole role has been undermined from the start,” said Christopher Phillips, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at U.K. think tank, Chatham House.

“He’s very much the Muslim Brotherhood’s man, and is seen as such. There was a lot of pressure to get an interim opposition leader in place ahead of the Doha talks, but the way in which it was done, and the choice of very much the man that Qatar and Turkey wanted, has infuriated and alienated just about every key player in the process.”

Represents 'the some of the some'
Salman Shaik, director of the Brookings Center in Doha, said many Syrians "still regard the appointment of Hitto with suspicion." Even if Assad is toppled from power, Hitto is by no means certain of the authority he needs to implement free and fair elections.

“The huge elephant in the room is that there is no guarantee that, if and when the Assad regime falls, that any of the groups fighting in Syria will gather around this official opposition,” said Phillips. “There are huge uncertainties in all of this.”

Abdulrahman al-Rashed, commentator and general manager of the Al Arabiya news channel, wrote: “I am confident that Mr. Hitto is a respectable person and that he cares about Syria. But during this difficult time, we want a person who represents everyone and not only some Syrians. Some members of the Syrian coalition decided to choose Hitto but the coalition itself only represents some Syrians. Therefore, Hitto represents the some of the some!”

Yasser Tabarra, the Chicago-based legal adviser to the Coalition, says the interim government will focus on managing the 60 to 70 percent of the country that is liberated and controlled by opposition rebels.

The government would coordinate local management efforts, including establishing law and order, and delivering basic goods and services, Tabarra said.

Two key stumbling blocks remain: whether the Coalition should enter into any form of negotiations with the regime while Assad is still in power, and whether Hitto, an ethnic Kurd viewed as the Muslim Brotherhood's favored candidate, can unite the ideological differences between its liberal and Islamist members.

In his task, Hitto at least has the backing of the U.S.

“This is an individual who, out of concern for the Syrian people, left a very successful life in Texas to go and work on humanitarian relief for the people of his home country,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland after Hitto’s election.

“We’re very hopeful that his election will foster unity and cohesion among the opposition.”

NBC News' Becky Bratu contributed to this report.

(AP /Coordination Committee In Kafr Susa)

Citizen journalism image provided by Coordination Committee in Kafr Susa which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows people tearing down a huge poster of President Bashar Assad and hitting it with their shoes, in Raqqa, Syria, Monday, March. 4, 2013. The activists said the picture was taken inside the Air Force Intelligence headquarters in Raqqa.

AMMAN — Syrian opposition fighters captured the northeastern city of Raqqa on Monday and crowds toppled a statue of President Bashar al-Assad's father, opposition sources and a resident said.

The fall of Raqqa, capital of the province by the same name on the Euphrates River, would be a significant development in the two-year-old revolt against Assad. The rebels do not claim to hold any other provincial capitals.

On Monday the civil war spilled into neighboring Iraq, where officials reported that gunmen had killed at least 40 Syrian soldiers and government employees as they headed home after fleeing a Syrian rebel advance last week.

Iraqi authorities were taking them to another border crossing further south in Iraq's Sunni Muslim stronghold, Anbar province, when gunmen ambushed their convoy, a senior Iraqi official told Reuters. No group has claimed responsibility.

The ambush inside Iraq illustrates how Syria's conflict, with its sectarian overtones, has the potential to spill over its borders and drag in neighboring countries, further destabilising an already volatile region.

Iraq's Anbar province is experiencing renewed demonstrations by Sunnis against the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki over what they see as the marginalization of their minority and misuse of terrorism laws against them.

Syria's rebels are mostly Sunnis fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad's government, dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Some 70,000 people have been killed in Syria and nearly a million have fled the country, the United Nations says.

By pushing into Raqqa, the rebels could bring new hazards to hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have fled their homes to the city, now called the "hotel'' of the country.

Residents of the northeastern city, home to half a million people, had pleaded with rebels not to enter the densely built metropolitan area, fearing that Assad's war planes and artillery could target residential areas.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said the Islamist Jabhat al-Nusra and other rebel groups launched the offensive on Saturday and large parts of Raqqa were now under rebel control.

Opposition activist photographs showed a burning guard post, men ripping down a poster of Assad and a fallen statue of his late father, Hafez al-Assad, who took power in 1970.

Video footage posted on the Internet by rebel groups showed an abandoned prison in what they said was the center of the city, 100 miles east of Aleppo.

The Syrian National Council, a large bloc within the umbrella Syrian National Coalition, said the capture of Raqqa would prove "a decisive victory in the struggle for the downfall of the criminal Assad regime and to salvage Syria from the ugliest epoch in its history."

In a statement, the council said that with the fall of Raqqa a link was established between vast areas that fell to the opposition in the oil-producing east of the country and rebel-held regions in the northern Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

Events in Raqqa were not confirmed by independent media, which are restricted in their access to combat zones.

International powers are divided over Syria, with Russia and Shiite Iran supporting their historical ally Assad and the United States and Sunni Gulf countries backing the opposition.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are widely believed to be providing weapons to the rebels, but the United States says it does not wish to send arms for fear they may find their way to Islamist hardliners who might then use them against Western targets.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who said last week that Washington would directly provide medical supplies and food to rebels, reiterated that concern on Monday.

"There is no guarantee that one weapon or another might not at some point in time fall into the wrong hands,"he told a joint news conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in Riyadh.

"Believe me the bad actors regrettably have no shortage of their ability to get weapons, from Iran, from Hezbollah, from Russia unfortunately, and that is happening," Kerry said.

Faisal, without confirming the supply of arms to rebels, said Saudi Arabia would do "everything within its capabilities'' to provide "aid and security for the Syrians."

Also contributing to this Reuters report were Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Kamal Naama in Anbar and Angus McDowall in Riyadh; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Stephen Powell.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — At least 40 Syrian pro-government soldiers and officials were killed in an ambush in the Iraq's Anbar province on Monday, according to an Iraqi government official. 

The Syrians had fled into Iraq after fighting anti-government forces in northern Syria, the source told NBC News, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Syrians, some of whom needed medical attention, handed themselves over to Iraqi authorities, he said.

The group deemed it was safer to return to Damascus by a circuitous route that entailed driving down to Baghdad and then back west to Syria, the official said. While the convoy was making its way through Anbar province — part of Iraq’s Sunni triangle and thus not allied with the Shiite-linked government of Syria's President Bashar Assad — it was ambushed by unknown Iraqi gunmen.

It is thought that at least 40 Syrian forces and officials and seven Iraqi soldiers escorting the foreigners were killed in the ambush.

Thousands of Iraqi Sunnis have been protesting for more than two months against Iraq's Shiite-led government and the perceived marginalization of their sect.

It is not known where the Syrians' bodies were.

Reuters contributed to this report.

In a policy shift, the United States on Thursday will announce plans to channel aid directly to selected groups of the Syrian opposition rather than through non-governmental agencies, senior White House officials told NBC News.

The aid plan, being forged with European allies, will still not include weapons, despite the calls of a growing number of American senators — but the definition of "non-lethal" aid will be more broadly defined, the officials said, noting that details of the plan were still being finalized.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in Paris on his first foreign trip in his new position, said earlier that Washington is looking for new ways to help rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and speed up political transition in the country.

"We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the transition the Syrian people seek and deserve," Kerry said during a news conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

The Washington Post has reported that the administration was planning to start sending non-lethal equipment like body armor and armed vehicles to Assad's foes.

Among the items likely to be included in the direct aid to rebels are meals and medical kits, The Associated Press reported.

Kerry was expected to announce the new contributions at the Rome conference, in addition to tens of millions of dollars intended for rule of law and governance programs.

For its part, the Syrian opposition is planning to demand "qualitative military support" at talks with major powers in Rome this week, a leading figure in movement to oust Assad told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We ask our friends to give us every backing to achieve gains on the ground and help reach a political solution from a position of strength, not weakness," said Riad Seif of the Syrian National Coalition umbrella group said a day before a Friends of Syria conference in the Italian capital.

"We expect to receive political, humanitarian and qualitative military support,” he said.

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands after a news conference with French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius at the Foreign Ministry in Paris on Wednesday.

The Friends of Syria group is composed mainly of Western powers, Gulf Arab states opposed to the Iranian-backed Assad, and Turkey.

The West and Syria's neighbors have been looking for a solution to the two-year-old civil war in Syria that has claimed around 70,000 lives and sent 860,000 refugees fleeing abroad. The conflict pitting the largely Sunni rebels against the Alawite-dominated Assad government threatens to destabilize countries in the region, most notably Lebanon.

In Paris, Kerry said the United States wanted the Syrian opposition's advice on how to accelerate a political solution to help halt the bloodshed and protect the interests of the Syrian people.

"We want (the Syrian opposition's) advice on how we can accelerate the prospects of a political solution because that is what we believe is the best path to peace, the best way to protect the interest of the Syrian people," he said ahead of meetings with the opposition on Thursday.

"As I have said, that may require us to change President al-Assad's current calculation. He needs to know that he can't shoot his way out of this. So we need to convince him of that and I think the opposition needs more help in order to be able to do that. And we are working together to have a united position," Kerry added. 

Slideshow: Syria uprising

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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

But Iraq's prime minister warned that a victory for the rebels in Syria would create new problems, by creating a haven for extremists and worsening sectarian tensions in the Middle East.

In an interview with the AP, Nouri al-Maliki stopped shy of expressing support for the Assad regime.

The prime minister's remarks reflect fears by many Shiite Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere that Sunni Muslims would come to dominate Syria should Assad be toppled.

"If the world does not agree to support a peaceful solution through dialogue ... then I see no light at the end of the tunnel," al-Maliki said.

"Neither the opposition nor the regime can finish each other off," he continued. "The most dangerous thing in this process is that if the opposition is victorious, there will be a civil war in Lebanon, divisions in Jordan and a sectarian war in Iraq."

As the bloody Syrian conflict wears on, there is a growing number of U.S. legislators urging greater action, including some type of military support for the rebels.

Sen. Roger Wicker, a member of the Armed Services Committee, appearing on NBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports on Wednesday.

"I hope our new secretary of state will listen carefully to the more responsible of the Syrian opposition," said Wicker, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Asked if that meant the United States should provide weapons, he said: "I think there are ways and means for us to see that is done. I think Secretary of State Kerry is going to be listening to those proposals, and I think if he does what he's being told at the highest levels of the Pentagon, we may be moving, yes, to military aid for the responsible opposition groups."

He agreed that there is a risk to those weapons falling into the hands of radical extremists infiltrating the opposition movement, but said.

"There's no question it's a concern, but this has gone on too long. The Assad regime needs to fall."

Andrea Mitchell is NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent. Catherine Chomiak is an NBC News producer. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

Huge blast rocks central Damascus as Assad hints at talks

In initial coup for Kerry, Syria's opposition to attend Rome meeting

Dozens killed after huge car bomb hits Syria's capital

Responding to appeals from Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart, Syrian opposition leaders reversed course Monday and agreed to attend an international summit to address the ongoing violence that has ravaged Syria for almost two years.

Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz al-Khatib announced on Facebook that the group will attend Thursday’s meeting in Rome after Washington and London offered more aid to the war-torn country. Opposition leaders initially said they would boycott the conference because the two western governments had refused to provide them weapons to aid their battle with the regime in Damascus and had, in their view, failed to issue strong condemnations of civilian casualties in Syria.

The opposition's about-face came as welcome news for Kerry, who is facing his initial test as America’s chief diplomat. In the midst of his first overseas trip, Kerry phoned al-Khatib on Monday and urged the group to attend the meeting with 11 western nations.

During a press conference in London with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Kerry also hinted that the United States could be open to revising the current policy of not providing weapons to the Syrian rebels.

Both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recommended arming vetted rebel groups, an idea President Barack Obama ultimately rejected last year out of concerns that the weapons could fall into the hands of al-Qaida.

Kerry said the president is currently re-evaluating the steps necessary for the United States to "fulfill our obligation to innocent people, as well as to lead on this important issue."

With the start of the president's second term in office and a new secretary of state, Kerry said "this moment is ripe for us to be considering what more we can do," said Kerry. As a senator, Kerry said military aid to the rebels should be on the table.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, armed by Russia, vastly outgun the rebels. On Friday, SCUD missiles rained down on the rebel-held areas of Aleppo, killing scores of civilians.

"Our policy can’t be static in the face of those events. It will have to change and develop," said Hague.

Also on Monday, Syria's foreign minister announced the government was willing to sit down with the rebels in what may be the clearest sign in the 23-month old conflict that the government fears the steady progress being made by opposition fighters.

But the overture was largely viewed with skepticism by U.S. officials.

"It seems to me that it’s pretty hard to understand how, when you see these SCUDs falling on the innocent people of Aleppo, it’s possible to take their notion that they’re ready to have a dialogue very seriously," said Kerry.

Nearly 70,000 Syrians have been killed in the civil war that began in March 2011 when Assad cracked down on protestors demonstrating on the streets for more political freedoms. On Monday a bomb blast rocked the Syrian capital of Damascus, followed by reports of heavy gunfire.

"What I can tell you is we are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind wondering where the support is or if it’s coming," said Kerry.

During his 11-day trip, Kerry is making stops in Europe and the Middle East.

Ayman Mohueldin, Andrea Mitchell and Catherine Chomiak contributed to this report

Reuters

A man inspects a house that was damaged by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al Assad in the Harasta area of Damascus on Monday.

BEIRUT — Syria said Monday it is prepared to hold talks with the armed rebels bent on overthrowing President Bashar Assad, the clearest signal yet that the regime is growing increasingly nervous about its long-term prospects to hold onto power as opposition fighters make slow but persistent headway in the civil war.

The offer, by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem during a visit to Moscow, came hours before residents of Damascus and state-run TV reported a huge explosion and a series of smaller blasts in the capital, followed by heavy gunfire.

State-run news agency SANA said there were multiple casualties from the explosion, which it said was a suicide car bombing.

The proposal marked the first time that a high-ranking regime official has stated publicly that Damascus would be willing to meet with the armed opposition. But al-Moallem did not spell out whether rebels would first have to lay down their weapons before negotiations could begin — a crucial sticking point in the past.

The regime's proposal is unlikely to lead to talks. The rebels battling the Syrian military have vowed to stop at nothing less than Assad's downfall and are unlikely to agree to sit down with a leader they accuse of mass atrocities.

But the timing of the proposal suggests the regime is warming to the idea of a settlement as it struggles to hold territory and claw back ground it has lost to the rebels in the nearly 2-year-old conflict.

Opposition fighters have scored several tactical victories in recent weeks, capturing the nation's largest hydroelectric dam and overtaking airbases in the northeast. In Damascus, they have advanced from their strongholds in the suburbs into neighborhoods in the northeast and southern rim of the capital, while peppering the center of the city with mortar rounds for days.

Monday night's explosion struck about 800 yards from Abbasid Square, a landmark plaza in central Damascus. It was followed by several other smaller blasts thought to be mortar shells landing in various districts of the capital. The blasts and subsequent gunfire caused panic among residents who hid in their apartments.

Shifting momentum
On Thursday, a car bomb near the ruling Baath Party headquarters in Damascus killed at least 53 people, according to state media.

While the momentum appears to be shifting in the rebels' direction, the regime's grip on Damascus remains firm, and Assad's fall is far from imminent.

Still, Monday's offer to negotiate with the armed opposition — those whom Assad referred to only in January as "murderous criminals" and refused to talk with — reflects the regime's realization that in the long run, its chances of keeping its grip on power are slim.

Asked about al-Moallem's remarks, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the offer of talks was a positive step "in the context of them raining Scuds down on their own civilians." But he expressed caution about the seriousness of the offer.

"I don't know their motivations, other than to say they continue to rain down horrific attacks on their own people," Ventrell told reporters in Washington. "So that speaks pretty loudly and clearly."

If the Assad regime is serious, he said, it should inform the U.N. peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi of its readiness for talks. Ventrell said the regime hasn't done that yet.

Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute, said called the offer "a sign of weakness."

"I think everybody knows, including Bashar Assad, that they (the regime) can't hang onto the whole country," Tabler said.

Mustafa Alani, an analyst with the Gulf Research Center in Geneva, said the regime has "reached the conclusion that they are heading toward a major defeat eventually, and this is the right time to negotiate."

"They are not losing miles every day, but they are losing substantial ground every day. So the regime is not genuine (in its offer) because it has changed, it's genuine because it is responding to a major shift in the balance of power on the ground," he added.

Alani cautioned, however, that the regime is also eager to keep the idea of talks alive in order to forestall any Western decision on arming the rebels. As long as the possibility of negotiations is still on the table, the United States and the European Union — which have so far provided only non-lethal aid — will be reluctant to open the flood gates on weapons for the opposition, he said.

Strategic delays?
"The whole regime tactic is to delay supplying arms, to buy time," Alani said. "The regime can show good will. Whether they're a viable partner or not is a different story."

It's also unclear who exactly the regime would sit across from at the negotiating table.

The dozens of armed groups across Syria fall under no unified command and do not answer to the Syrian National Council, an umbrella group of opposition parties that the West recognizes as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

At least one group offered a lukewarm response Monday to al-Moallem's proposal.

The head of one group, Free Syrian Army chief Gen. Salim Idriss, said he is "ready to take part in dialogue within specific frameworks," but then rattled off conditions that the regime has rejected in the past.

"There needs to be a clear decision on the resignation of the head of the criminal gang, Bashar Assad, and for those who participated in the killing of the Syrian people to be put on trial," Idriss told pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Arabiya TV.

He said the government must agree to stop all kinds of violence and to hand over power, saying that "as rebels, this is our bottom line."

Syria's 23-month-old conflict, which has killed more than 70,000 people and destroyed many of the country's cities, has repeatedly confounded international efforts to bring the parties together to end the bloodshed. Russia, a close ally of Assad and his regime's chief international advocate, offered Feb. 20, in concert with the Arab League, to broker talks between the rebels and the government.

With the proposal, which the Kremlin would be unlikely to float publicly without first securing Damascus' word that it would indeed take part, Moscow ratcheted up the pressure on Syria to talk to the opposition.

Russia Syrian situation 'at a crossroads'
Russia has shielded Assad's government from U.N. action and kept shipping weapons to the military, but it is growing increasingly difficult to protect the regime as the violence grinds on.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov repeated his call Monday for Syria to negotiate with the opposition, saying before meeting al-Moallem that "the situation in Syria is at a crossroads now." He also warned that further fighting could lead to "the breakup of the Syrian state."

Past government offers for talks with the opposition have included a host of conditions, such as demanding that the rebels first lay down their arms. Those proposals have been swiftly rejected by both activists outside Syria and rebels on the ground.

Both sides in the conflict in recent weeks have floated offers and counteroffers to hold talks on the crisis.

In a speech in January, Assad offered to lead a national dialogue to end the bloodshed, but said he would not talk with the armed opposition and vowed to keep fighting. The opposition rejected the proposal.

This month, the leader of the Syrian National Coalition, the umbrella group for opposition parties, said he would be open to discussions with the regime that could pave the way for Assad's departure, but that the government must first release tens of thousands of detainees. The government refused, and even members within the coalition balked at the idea of talks.

Speaking to reporters Monday in Cairo, SNC chief Mouaz al-Khatib accused the regime of procrastinating and said it had derailed his dialogue offer by not responding to the coalition's conditions.

"We are always open to initiatives that stop the killing and destruction, but the regime rejected the simplest of humanitarian conditions. We have asked that the regime start by releasing women prisoners and there was no response," he said. "This regime must understand that the Syrian people do not want it anymore."

Reversal on Rome meeting
The coalition also finds itself at odds with its Western backers. Initially, it said it would boycott a conference in Rome that is to help drum up financial and political support for the opposition. The SNC said it had suspended its participation in the Rome meeting because of the indifference of the West and the coalition's Arab allies over the regime's attacks on the Syrian people.

Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the Coalition, said later Monday that the group has reversed its decision following a phone call between al-Khatib and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Al-Bunni told Al-Arabiya TV the decision was made based on guarantees al-Khatib heard from western diplomats that the conference would be different this time. He did not elaborate.

Kerry on Monday urged rebel leaders not to skip the meeting and insisted that more help is on the way.

Kerry made a public plea at a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague and also called al-Khatib, leader of the Syrian Opposition Council, "to encourage him to come to Rome," a senior U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Meanwhile, the fighting inside Syria rages on.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group reported heavy clashes Monday near a police academy in Khan al-Asal just outside Aleppo.

Rebels backed by captured tanks launched an offensive on the facility Sunday. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said at least 13 rebels and five regime troops were killed.

In another part of Aleppo, rebels downed a military helicopter near the Mennegh airport, where there have been fierce clashes for months.

A video posted online by activists showed a missile being fired, a trail of white smoke and the aircraft going up in flames. Voices in the background shouted, "God is great!" as a man raised both hands in celebration.

The video appeared to be authentic and corresponded to other AP reporting.

Muzaffar Salman / REUTERS

Demonstrators hold a giant opposition flag during a protest against Syria's President Bashar Assad in Bustan al-Qasr district in Aleppo, Feb. 22, 2013. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman

The main Syrian opposition grouping has said it turned down invitations to visit Washington and Moscow to protest what it described as international silence over destruction of the ancient city of Aleppo by Syrian missile strikes.

A statement late on Friday by the Syrian National Coalition, an umbrella group of opposition political forces, said it also had suspended participation in a Friends of Syria conference of international powers due in Rome next month to protest the attacks it said have caused many civilian casualties.

"Hundreds or civilians have been killed by Scud missile strikes. Aleppo, the city and the civilization, is being destroyed systematically," the statement said.

"The Russian leadership especially bears moral and political responsibility for supplying the regime with weapons," it added, referring to Moscow's status as a leading ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"In protest of this shameful international stand, the coalition has decided to suspend its participation in the Rome conference for the Friends of Syria and decline the invitations to visit Russia and the United States."

The invitations had been extended to opposition coalition leader Mouaz Alkhatib after he met the Russian and U.S. foreign ministers in Munich this month.

The invitations were made shortly after Alkhatib offered to negotiate Assad's departure with members of the Syrian government who were not tainted by having participated in the crackdown on the 23-month-long revolt.

Rocket attacks on eastern districts of Aleppo, Syria's industrial and commercial hub, killed at least 29 people on Friday and trapped a family of 10 in the ruins of their home, opposition activists in the city said.

On Tuesday activists said at least 20 people were killed when a large missile hit the rebel-held district of Jabal Badro, also in the east of the contested city.

Reuters

AMMAN — Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib said on Sunday he was willing to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad's representatives in rebel-held areas of northern Syria to try to end a conflict that has killed about 60,000 people.

The aim of the talks would be to find a way for Assad to leave power with the "minimum of bloodshed and destruction," Alkhatib said in a statement published on his Facebook page.

Sources in the coalition, an umbrella group of opposition political forces, said that Alkhatib, a moderate cleric from Damascus, met international Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in Cairo on Sunday.

Brahimi played a main role in organizing meetings between Alkhatib and the foreign ministers of Russia and Iran, Assad's main supporters, in Munich last week.

The sources said that in their talks on Sunday the two men addressed the question of whether the coalition would formally endorse Alkhatib's peace initiative.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which controls a large bloc within the Islamist-dominated coalition, is against the initiative.

But the Brotherhood, the only organized political force in the opposition, is unlikely to challenge Alkhatib's authority directly, with his initiative gaining popularity in Syria, the sources said.

The Syrian authorities have not responded directly to Alkhatib's initiative — formulated in broad terms last month. But Information Minister Amran al-Zubi on Friday repeated the government's line that the opposition was welcome to come to Damascus to discuss Syria's future in line with Assad's proposals for a national dialogue.

Alkhatib has headed the Syrian National Coalition since it was founded last December in Qatar with Western and Gulf backing. He has quietly built a student following and links with civic and religious figures across Syria.

Renewed fighting
His latest offer of talks coincided with opposition reports of fighting moving closer to central Damascus, after a rebel push into the east of the capital last week.

The Local Coordination Committees, a network of grassroots activists, said clashes broke out on Sunday in the al-Afif neighborhood of Damascus, which is adjacent to a presidential complex.

The organization said 77 people were killed in Syria on Sunday, including 16 people who it said had been executed by Assad's forces in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor. Such reports are impossible to verify as Syria severely restricts access for independent media.

The war is pitting Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated Syria since 1960s, against the Sunni majority that has led the protest movement.

When Alkhatib made his offer of talks last month, he made this conditional on the authorities starting to release tens of thousands of political prisoners jailed since the eruption of the 22-month uprising.

The United Nations said on Friday that it saw a glimmer of hope in Alkhatib's offer.

U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said the offer was "the most promising thing we've heard on Syria recently".

On Sunday, Alkhatib spelt out ideas on a venue for talks.

He said: "If the regime is so concerned about sovereignty and does not want to venture out of Syrian territories, then there is a suitable solution, which is the liberated land in northern Syria."

He added: "There is an important question. Will the regime agree to leave with the minimum of blood and destruction?"

Syria's uprising, which started as peaceful protests against four decades of autocratic rule by Assad and his late father, has turned into a violent sectarian conflict.

Prisoners
Freedom for political prisoners is an important issue for the opposition. Alkhatib said even centrist opposition figures who were willing to talk with Assad, such as Abelaziz al-Khayyer, a veteran Alawite human rights campaigner, have been jailed.

"The regime deals with the demands to release the political prisoners, especially the women, in a totally inhumane way," Alkhatib said. "Despite two years of savage killing, the regime is still trying to buy time."

The scion of a religious family who have historically been custodians in the Umayyad mosque in Old Damascus, Alkhatib was a proponent of a negotiated solution while he was in Syria. But he was jailed several times during the revolt in secret police dungeons and was forced to flee the country.

Alkhatib said the regime missed a "rare opportunity' by not agreeing to release women prisoners by a deadline he had set for Sunday, but that he was compelled morally to continue to try to negotiate a peaceful exit for Assad.

Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh in Cairo