WORLD_ Syria buries pilots as Arab sanctions loom

Syria buries pilots as Arab sanctions loom

CBC News Posted: Nov 27, 2011 1:17 AM ET
Last Updated: Nov 27, 2011 1:22 AM ET


Relatives of one of the six elite pilots who the Syrian military said were killed in an ambush on Thursday mourn his death during a funeral procession on Saturday. (Bassem Tellaw/Associated Press)


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Arab League discusses Syria sanctions
SPECIAL REPORT: Trouble in Syria
MAP: Crackdown in Syria Syria will find out Sunday whether it will be hit with a raft of sanctions from the Arab League over the the Assad government's handling of months of bloody street protests.

If the Arab League were to go ahead with the move, it would be a huge blow for a regime that considers itself a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.

Syria buried 22 members of the armed forces Saturday, including six elite pilots, as the government reinforced its message that the eight-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad is the work of terrorists and foreign agents, not patriotic Syrians seeking reform.

But with no sign of violence abating, an Arab League committee agreed Saturday on a draft of recommended sanctions against Syria, including halting co-operation with the nation's central bank and stopping flights to the country. The 22-nation body will vote on the recommendations Sunday in Cairo.

Syria is facing mounting international pressure to end the bloody crackdown on the uprising against Assad's rule that the United Nations says has killed more than 3,500 people. The European Union and the United States have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Assad and his regime, including a ban on the import of Syrian oil.

"U.S. and European sanctions are one thing, but coming from the Arab brothers and sisters, it is psychologically and realistically much more damaging," said Nikolaos van Dam, a former diplomat and Middle East scholar.

Still, there is widely held skepticism the Arab sanctions would succeed in pressuring the Syrian regime into putting an end to the violence that has claimed the lives of dozens of Syrians, week after week. Many fear the violence is pushing the country toward civil war.

Until recently, most of the bloodshed was caused by security forces firing on mainly peaceful protests. But there have been growing reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting Assad's forces, a development that some say plays into the regime's hands by giving government troops a pretext to crack down with overwhelming force.


Fierce clashes

Activists said fierce clashes took place Friday and Saturday between the Syrian military and army defectors, who have grown increasingly bold in attacking troops and security targets.

At least 13 civilians were killed Saturday, 12 of them in the flashpoint Homs province, activist groups said. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 soldiers were killed in overnight clashes with defectors in the country's east.

Since the revolt began, the regime has blamed armed gangs acting out a foreign conspiracy for the bloodshed. In a bid to reinforce that message, the Syrian Information Ministry took Syrian journalists to Homs for the funeral of 17 members of the armed forces killed recently in various attacks, including the six pilots and four technical officers who were killed in Thursday's ambush.

Syria has barred foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting, making escorted trips the only official way to cover events within the country.


***
Abduction alleged

An Egypt-based Syrian opponent of Assad's regime said Saturday his pregnant wife, 25, was abducted by Syrian intelligence agents in Cairo, then released and left unconscious on a street in the Egyptian capital. The Syrian Embassy in Egypt strongly denied the claim.

Thaer al-Nashef said he received an anonymous text message saying the abduction was meant to teach him "not to insult your masters again."

Al-Nashef worked as a correspondent for Syria's SANA state news agency until 2006, when he became a regime opponent. He has lived in Egypt since 2007 and has been a vocal critic of the regime, appearing often on Egyptian TV stations to discuss the uprising.



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