06:28 AEDT Sat Feb 18 2012
9NEWS
Syrian troops HAVE killed at least 56 people, opposition activists say, as the government ignored a UN General Assembly resolution condemning the continuing violence and calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Thousands of protesters defied government forces in the restive provinces of Homs, Idlib, Hama and Daraa, chanting anti-regime slogans during mass rallies held after Friday prayers.
A visit to Damascus on Friday by a top Chinese envoy, Vice-Foreign Minister Zhai Jun, was a diplomatic boost for al-Assad a day after the General Assembly resolution that was opposed by China and Russia.
The two countries had also vetoed a similar resolution in the UN Security Council on February 4.
While French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday strongly condemned the Syrian regime for "butchering" its people, they ruled out military intervention, saying Syria was different from Libya.
"What is happening in Syria is appalling. You have a government that is butchering and murdering its own people," Cameron told a joint press conference with Sarkozy in Paris.
When Western powers intervened in Libya, it was with the authorisation of the United Nations, a call from the Arab League for action and a "clear opposition in Libya that worked on behalf of the whole country", he said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, during a meeting in Washington with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, reiterated international efforts to pressure al-Assad and help the Syrian people.
"We also hope to coordinate efforts to enable a Syrian-led transition before the regime's action tear the country apart," said Clinton, adding that discussions would continue at a Friends of Syria meeting in Tunisia next week.
Unlike in Libya, the Syrian opposition is fragmented and the rebels do not yet control any areas of the country. The absence of Western military support for the rebels means the conflict could drag on, and even deteriorate into civil war.
The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a group of activists documenting the violence, said 56 people were killed by government forces on Friday.
LCC spokesman Omar Idlibi said 12 army deserters were executed at an army checkpoint in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of the popular uprising that erupted in March.
Activists in the central province of Homs said troops shelled civilian neighbourhoods for a 14th consecutive day, killing at least 12. Many more remain buried under the rubble, they said.
Video posted on YouTube showed buildings collapsing from the fierce bombardment in the Baba Amr and Khalidiyeh neighbourhoods in the city of Homs, which is besieged by government forces.
In the northern province of Idlib near the border with Turkey, protesters took to the streets chanting: "We want the al-Assad clan to leave."
Troops opened fire on protesters in the neighbourhood of Mezze in the capital Damascus, killing several civilians. They also fired at demonstrators in the north-western province of Aleppo, where activists said several people died.
In Cairo, hundreds of protesters held a rally outside the Syrian embassy to condemn the violence.
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