1 of 3. Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Marat al-Numan, near the northern province of Idlib, January 17, 2012. Picture taken January 17, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Handout
By Alistair Lyon
BEIRUT Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:47pm EST
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces have retreated from a rebel-held town under a local ceasefire, residents said on Thursday, but deadly violence raged on elsewhere as a month-long mandate for Arab peace monitors in Syria was expiring.
Twenty people, including two army officers, were reported killed across Syria, adding to a death toll of more than 600 since the Arab League observers arrived.
An armed insurgency is taking hold in some areas, hardening what began 10 months ago as a mostly peaceful struggle against President Bashar al-Assad's authoritarian rule.
Residents of Zabadani said troops and tanks that had besieged the insurgent-controlled town had pulled back after a deal to end days of fighting, according to an opposition leader.
Dozens of armored vehicles that had encircled Zabadani, a hill resort near the Lebanese border, withdrew to garrisons 8 km (5 miles) away, Kamal al-Labwani told Reuters.
The Arab League monitoring mandate was expiring on Thursday night, with Arab foreign ministers due to weigh their next move in Cairo on Sunday. They are at odds over how to respond to the turmoil in which thousands of people have been killed.
"They are in a big mess," a source close to the Cairo-based League said. "They are running out of options."
An Arab League source said this week Syria might let the monitors stay on, but without any broadening of their mandate.
The leader of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood said world powers should pile diplomatic pressure on Assad and set up a no-fly zone and "safe zones" to help the opposition.
"ISOLATE SYRIA"
"The international community should take the right position ... They should fully isolate this regime, pull out their ambassadors and expel the regime's ambassadors," Mohammad Shaqfa told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Assad, whose father crushed an armed Brotherhood revolt in 1982, says Syria is facing a foreign conspiracy that is using Islamist militants to destroy a bastion of Arab nationalism.
"The country is capable of overcoming the current conditions and building a strong Syria," Assad told a delegation calling itself the Arab People's Initiative for Fighting Foreign Intervention in Syria, the state news agency SANA reported.
The U.N. Security Council is split over Syria, with Russia declaring it will work with China to block any move to authorize military intervention.
Western powers have acknowledged that a Libya-style campaign in Syria would be fraught with danger, but want the council at least to condemn Assad's repression and impose sanctions.
Reliable casualty figures are hard to come by in Syria, where media access has been limited and the outside world has had to piece together a picture from the conflicting accounts of the parties to an inchoate and increasingly bloody struggle.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 454 civilians had been killed since the Arab observers deployed on December 26 to verify whether an Arab peace plan was working.
It said 146 members of the security forces, including 27 who had deserted to the opposition, had also been killed. The Observatory's figures did not include 26 people who authorities said were killed by a suicide bomber in Damascus on January 6.
The British-based Observatory reported at least 18 more civilian deaths across Syria on Thursday and said an insurgent attack in Hama had killed an army brigadier and a lieutenant.
Asked if the Arab monitors had made a difference, Rami Abdul-Rahman, the name used by the Observatory's director, said: "Yes, in the first week, the number of deaths fell sharply. After that, no, the numbers rose."
The Avaaz advocacy group said 746 civilians had been killed over the past month, and it urged the Arab League to ask the Security Council to impose punitive measures against Assad.
"TREATED WITH CONTEMPT"
"Arab League observers have now observed Assad's brutality first hand," Avaaz director Ricken Patel said. "Their mission has been treated with contempt and failed on every objective."
The United Nations said on December 13 that security forces had killed more than 5,000 people in Syria since March. A week later Damascus said insurgents had killed 2,000 security personnel.
The Arab League suspended Syria and announced sanctions for its failure to comply with a November peace plan which required that it halt the bloodshed, withdraw military forces from the streets, free detainees, provide access to Arab monitors and the media, and open a political dialogue with opposition groups.
The unrest, combined with Western sanctions, has driven the value of the Syrian pound down by 50 percent on the black market, exchange dealers said.
Assad's foes say the Arab monitoring mission has only given Assad diplomatic cover to pursue a violent crackdown.
Some Arab countries, led by Qatar, which heads the League's committee on Syria, say the mission has failed. Qatar has even proposed sending in Arab troops, an idea opposed by Damascus and not endorsed by any other country in the 22-member League.
Iraq and Lebanon have said they will not enforce Arab sanctions on Syria, offering a trade lifeline to a country whose other neighbors are Turkey, Jordan and Israel.
European Union governments are expected on Monday to expand the list of people and Syrian companies and institutions targeted by EU sanctions, diplomats said in Brussels.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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Comments (1)
Ancalimon wrote:
The situation in Syria is now resembling Libya before the full blowin insurrection to Civil War. Now there is foreign arms coming into Syria to supply the armed rebellion.
Syria would never have relented in its attack on Zabadani if it was a piece of cake, which says that the rebels forces have gained much strength.
How can Syrian Armed Forces cope with widespread military defections? In the long run, they cannot.
Now with Iran about to become besieged both economically and militarily, the Syrian support pipeline will be severely damaged, in effect isolating the Syrian Armed Forces with enemies both within and without.
I may be wrong, but it seems to me this scenario has been planned out for quite some years and soon it will come to a head.
Jan 19, 2012 12:30pm EST
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What do you think ?
Các anh chị nghĩ thế nào, có ý kiến phê bình gì qua bài viết "Syria killings persist as Arab monitors' mandate expires" của Alistair Lyon và ý kiến- phê bình của đọc giả Ancalimon "... but it seems to me this scenario has been planned out for quite some years and soon it will come to a head." ?
Dân tộc Việt Nam BỊ MẤT NƯỚC vào tay bè lũ phản quốc CƯỚP NƯỚC DIỆT CHỦNG BÁN NƯỚC là đảng Việt gian cộng sản VN học thêm bài học gì nữa từ tình hinh Syria, qua bài viết trên ?
Hôm nay Tây lịch là ngày mà một số tổ chức hải ngọai đặt tên gọi "Ngày Hòang Sa" để ghi nhớ và Tưởng Niệm Trận Hải Chiến Hòang Sa của Hải Quân Việt Nam Cộng Hòa CHỐNG lại quân tàu cộng xâm chiếm lãnh hải VN cách đây 38 năm, mà chính bè lũ súc sinh cộng sản VN, đứng đầu là quốc tặc hồ chí minh và thằng chó đẻ phạm văn đồng đã ký bán lãnh hải Tổ Tiên Việt cho tàu cộng từ ngày 14-9-1958, những kẻ vọng ngọai, vong bản cứ ngồi chờ ngọai bang bật đèn xanh đèn vàng nhớ gì, nghĩ gì về thái độ của "đồng minh" với Hải Quân VNCH trong Trận Hải Chiến Đẫm Máu Hòang Sa Ngày 19-1-1974 đã Oai Hùng đời đời đi vào Dòng Sử Việt ???
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
19012012
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CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
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