Syrian forces kill 9 anti-government protesters
Syrian security forces killed at least nine anti-government protesters and carried out wide-scale arrests as demonstrators took to the streets after Friday prayers to demand that President Bashar al-Assad step down.
The killings occurred in the central governorate of Hama and in the suburbs of Damascus, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said by phone today. Gunfire was heard in the capital’s suburbs of Harasta, Douma and Barzeh, and some protesters were wounded, he said.
Security forces set up checkpoints and conducted searches starting late yesterday at the entrances of the three Damascus suburbs in anticipation of rallies, Merhi said. Thousands of people have regularly staged demonstrations after Friday prayers since the uprising started in March.
The Syrian protests are part of the wave of unrest across the Middle East and North Africa that unseated governments in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Assad’s crackdown has left more than 3,600 civilians dead, according to Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. About 30,000 people have been detained and 13,000 are still being held, Qurabi and Merhi said. About 700 members of the state security forces have been killed in the uprising, according to the government.
Army Defectors
Government forces killed at least 14 protesters yesterday in the central towns of Rastan and Talbiseh near the governorate of Homs and the northern province of Idlib, Merhi said. There were reports of clashes between security forces and army defectors in Rastan, he said.
“There are elements that have split from the army and they have taken it upon themselves to protect those demonstrating,” former judge and human-rights activist Haitham al-Maleh said today in an interview with Al-Arabiya television. “The regime’s strategy is to extract all the youth from the streets, however the revolution is continuing.”
European nations on the United Nations Security Council gave the panel a third version of their draft resolution this week calling for members to “consider” sanctions 30 days after adoption of the measure if Syria doesn’t halt the violence. It also urges restraint on “all sides” and greater involvement of the Arab League in a political solution to the crisis.
Russia opposes any mention of sanctions, its ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters yesterday.
Attack on Ambassador
Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, who has been a critic of Assad, escaped a violent mob of government supporters yesterday while visiting opposition lawyer Hasan Abdul-Azim at his office in Damascus.
Ford’s car was pelted with rocks, eggs, tomatoes and sticks, a person familiar with the situation said. The group tried to attack U.S. officials who were inside vehicles, seriously damaging the cars in the process, State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said yesterday. Syrian security officers helped clear a way for the ambassador and his aides return to the embassy, he said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday condemned the attack on Ford in the “strongest terms.”
“This attempt to intimidate our diplomats through violence is wholly unjustified,” Clinton said in remarks to reporters in Washington. The U.S. is “demanding” that Syria “take every possible step to protect our diplomats according to their obligations under international law,” she said.