Syria was last night said to be in a state of civil war by the UN as its top human rights official dramatically increased the death toll in the conflict to "much more" than 4000.
Pro-democracy protesters burn portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a demonstration outside the Arab League headquarters in Cairo Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
6:13PM GMT 01 Dec 2011
As Syria's exiled government-in-waiting announced it had formed an alliance with army defectors, Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights dramatically raised the estimated death toll since protests were launched on a Day of Dignity protests on March 15.
"We are placing the figure at 4,000, but really the reliable information coming to us is that it is much more than that," Mrs Pillay said. "I have said that as soon as there were more and more defectors threatening to take up arms, I said this in August before the Security Council, there was going to be a civil war. At the moment that's how I am characterising this."
An independent report cataloguing the toll of abuse President Assad's has inflicted on the population is to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council debate today.
With armed groups clashing on both sides, diplomats believe that the death toll is now running at hundreds of victims a week.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the main source of information on murders, said 10 people were killed yesterday including six during an army assault on town of al-Trimsa near the opposition stronghold of Hama.
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The Observatory's running tally of deaths has recorded 4,530 victims. A spokesman for Mrs Pillay said its figures are collated from several sources and are likely to be "conservative".
Represenatives of the Syrian National Council, (SNC) the exiled opposition's political front, revealed they had formed an eight man coordinating committee to oversee resistance against the regime with the Free Syria Army.
Burhan Ghalioun, the head of the SNC, formed a pact with Riyadh al-Asaad, a colonel who leads a force of deserters from the Syrian military based in southern Turkey's Hatay province.
Col Assad's forces claim to have carried out attacks on the security forces but the political opposition has been keen to maintain a peaceful challenge to the regime. Its leaders have sought an alliance for weeks fearing that the deserters would alienate ordinary Syrians fearful of civil war.
"The agreement stipulates that the Free Army must act in a way suited to the goals and the aims of the SNC and further states that the duty of this group is to protect, not to attack," said Khaled Khodja, a spokesman for the SNC. "It is agreed that it would be a coordinated movement, there would be co-ordination," the SNC's Khaled Khoja told AFP.
Diplomats have reported that the leadership of the Syrian national council has had difficulties establishing communications with the Free Syria Army command. At one point Mr Ghalioun, appealed to western diplomats to put pressure on Turkey to set up the talks.
"There are questions to be posed about the relationship," said Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for Arab British Understanding. "If the Free Syria Army really is successful in toppling the regime will they really get on and take political direction from an externally based political leadership."
International pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and its associates was raised yesterday as the EU joined governments around the world piling on fresh sanctions designed to end the fighting. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, welcomed the EU decision to add 12 regime cronies and 11 companies to its Syria sanctions list.
"This tenth round of sanctions aims to increase pressure on the Syrian regime to stop the continuing violent repression of the Syrian people," he said. "EU sanctions are part of a broad international response to the horrific abuses perpetrated by a regime that has lost legitimacy."
The regime faced a series of blows from around the world as sanctions were heaped on measures already in place.
The Arab League presented a list of 17 prominent pro-regime figures including the president's brother, Maher al-Assad, who commands the Republican Guard, and Rami Makhluf, Syria's richest businessman.
The American Treasury Department added Muhammad, Mr Makhluf's father, and Gen Aus Aslan, commander of the army's 4th armoured division, to its list.
Lebanon's leading banks also said they were shutting down Syrian bank accounts even though its government has opposed sanctions. "Banks are taking extremely strong precautions to avoid bad surprises regarding people or institutions under sanctions," a Lebanese banker said. "Banks are running away from anything that has to do with Syria like it's a disease because the US is closely watching."
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