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Syrian rebel army chief, Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad, denied in comments published on Monday that Kuwaitis were fighting alongside his men against forces of President Bashar al-Assad's government.

"Reports indicating the presence of Arab fighters (in Syria) are totally baseless," Asaad was quoted as saying by Kuwait's Al-Watan newspaper.

"There are no non-Syrian members in the FSA which consists only of Syrian soldiers and officers fighting to protect the revolution," the Turkey-based commander of the Free Syrian Army said.

On Sunday, Kuwait's Al-Qabas newspaper reported that dozens of Kuwaitis have crossed the Syrian-Turkish border to fight alongside the FSA, citing relatives of the fighters.

But Asaad insisted that the FSA does not need outside fighters, but only material and financial help.

Syrian troops attacked a rebel-held town in the center of the country with helicopter gunships on Monday and shelled other restive areas across the country, activists said.

The aerial assault targeted the strategic river crossing town of Rastan that has resisted repeated government offensives for months, they said.

It is part of an escalation of violence in recent weeks that comes despite an internationally-brokered cease-fire that was supposed to go into effect on April 12 but never took hold.

Syria's Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi recently said that rebels are now using sophisticated anti-tank missiles.

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