'Dozens die' in new Syria attacks
At least eight people have been reported killed in Syrian government shelling of rebel-held areas as the United States, Europe and Arab nations met in Tunisia to seek ways to end President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on the uprising.
As the besieged city of Homs came under renewed attack, thousands of people in dozens of towns staged anti-regime protests under the slogan: “We will revolt for your sake, Baba Amr,” referring to the Homs neighbourhood that has become the centre of the Syrian revolt.
Activists said at least 36 people were killed across the country.
More than 70 countries are taking part in the Friends of Syria meeting, which is expected to press Assad to agree to a ceasefire and allow for humanitarian aid to reach the hardest-hit areas.
The nations will also call for the United Nations to begin planning a Syria peacekeeping mission once the regime agrees to a ceasefire, a senior diplomat said.
American, European and Arab officials have said the group was likely to impose harsher sanctions if Assad rejects the ceasefire, and predicted the regime’s opponents would grow stronger if Assad remained in power.
Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis gained pace with the appointment of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan as the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy on the Syrian crisis.
Annan said in a statement that he would try to “help bring an end to the violence and human rights abuses, and promote a peaceful solution” in Syria. He expressed hope that the Syrian government and opposition groups will co-operate with him.
The Tunisia meeting is the latest international effort to end the crisis, which began when protesters inspired by uprisings sweeping across the Arab world took the streets in some of Syria’s impoverished provinces nearly a year ago to call for political change.
Assad’s security forces have responded with a fierce crackdown, and blame the violence on Islamic extremists and armed gangs. In recent months, the situation has grown increasingly militarised as opposition forces, boosted by army defectors, have increasingly taken up arms against the regime.
The UN estimated in January that 5,400 people were killed in the conflict in 2011. Hundreds more have died since. Syrian activists say the death toll is more than 7,300. Overall figures cannot be independently confirmed because Syria has prevented most media from operating inside the country.
Also today, UN-appointed investigators in Geneva said they had compiled a list of Syrian officials accused of crimes against humanity in the crackdown. The list reaches as high as Assad.
Russia and China have opposed foreign intervention or sanctions against Syria.
Alexei Pushkov, a Russian MP, said that in his recent meeting with Assad the Syrian president sounded confident and showed no sign he would he step aside. Pushkov warned that arming the Syrian opposition would fuel civil war.
But in a move highlighting Assad’s deepening isolation, the Hamas prime minister of Gaza voiced support for Syrian protesters seeking to overthrow his regime. It was the first time that a senior Hamas figure has publicly backed the uprising and rebuked the Syrian regime.
Four people died today in the renewed shelling of the Baba Amr neighbourhood, activists said.
The neighbourhood has been under siege and intense shelling for three weeks.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four others were killed in Homs’ rebel-held neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh.
The Observatory said troops were also attempting to storm Rastan, a besieged rebel-held town just north of Homs.
The Observatory said 36 civilians were killed throughout Syria today.
The Local Co-ordination Committees activist network said 53 people were killed by security forces across Syria today, but the number could not be immediately confirmed by others.
