Syria uprising: as it happened Feb 9Coverage of the developments in Syria, as David Cameron accused the Assad regime of being "hell-bent on killing, murdering and maiming" its own citizens, and more than 70 people were killed.
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A Syrian rebel runs for cover during an exchange of fire with army troops in Idlib, Syria Photo: AP
By Sarah Titterton
10:00PM GMT 09 Feb 2012
Comment
• Cameron: Regime "hell-bent on killing, murdering and maiming"
• More than 70 are killed across Syria today
• Total death toll in Homs siege soars past 400
• Syrian man's leg blown off by land mine on Lebanon border
• Turkey: The middle class are still supporting Assad
Latest
22.00 We're going to leave it there for tonight, please check our Syrian page for the latest.
21.00 David Blair writes on David Cameron stating the Syrian regime is 'hell-bent' on 'murdering and maiming' its own people:
The Prime Minister's angry denunciation of President Bashar al-Assad came on the sixth day of an assault on Syria's third city that has now claimed at least 300 lives. Tanks and heavy artillery have been used to pound large areas of Homs, inflicting some of the worst bloodshed since the conflict began 11 months ago.
"It's quite clear that this is a regime that is hell-bent on killing, murdering and maiming its own citizens," said Mr Cameron during an official visit to Stockholm. "What we're seeing on our television screens is completely unacceptable."
The "appalling" bombardment of Homs had created "scenes of destruction," he added. The Prime Minister urged the "toughest possible response" to ensure that "Assad stops his murderous tactics and that we see transition and change in Syria".
20.41 Barack Obama has decried the "outrageous bloodshed" in Syria, AFP reports.
Syrian rebels in Idlib
19.27 The United States is working with its European and Arab allies to organise the inaugural meeting of the "Friends of Syria" to explore ways to further isolate President Bashar Assad, support his foes and end ongoing violence, AP reports.
The State Department said on Thursday that its top Middle East envoy, Jeffrey Feltman, has been dispatched to Morocco, France and Bahrain to help put the meeting together and determine the group's membership and its mandate. Arab League foreign ministers are due to meet on Sunday in Cairo and could announce a date and venue for the meeting after that.
France and Turkey, both of which have historic and commercial interests in Syria, have offered to host the meeting. Morocco, which sponsored the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for Assad to step down that Russia and China vetoed, is also a candidate.
Mourners pray at a funeral for a ten-year-old boy and two rebel fighters killed during fighting in Idlib
18.20 Middle East Correspondent Richard Spencer is inside Syria. His frontline dispatch from just outside Homs:
Down the road ahead, their provincial capital is being ruthlessly pummelled into submission, by tanks, mortars and what looked from the blast damage to be heavy duty artillery.
But however outnumbered and outgunned they may be, the revolutionaries of Homs are fighting back, and they are paying a heavy price.
In villages around the city, liberated areas have sprung up, with a patchwork of front lines defended by the loose confederation of amateurs and defectors who like to call themselves the Free Syrian Army.
On Thursday, a steady stream of them poured into a makeshift field hospital set up in a tumbledown, traditional Arab farmhouse, plastic tarpaulin protecting the "operating room" from the bare rafters and cane roof.
16.53 David Cameron has accused the Assad regime of being "hell-bent" on murder.
The Prime Minister didn't hold back as he demanded regime change while speaking to reporters in Stockholm - calling for the "toughest possible response" from the itnernational community so that "Assad stops his murderous tactics and that we see transition and change in Syria."
He says:
It's quite clear that this is a regime that is hell-bent on killing, murdering, and maiming its own citizens... What we're seeing on our television screens is completely unacceptable ... it really is appalling, the scenes of destruction in Homs.
David Cameron's strong words for Assad
16.10 The death toll across Syria has just leapt up again to more than 70 - 61 of whom, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, died in shelling and other violence in the Homs province.
Thirty-six of those people died in the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr alone, according to the AFP.
15.13 The Associated Press says that Syrians are using loudspeakers to call for help during lulls in the shelling. They cannot go outside to seek help for fear of snipers.
15.11 Turkey's ambassador to the EU claims Syria's middle class are still supporing Assad - mostly because they are afraid of what could replace him.
Selim Yenel tells Reuters:
What we are seeing is horrendous. The result will probably be bloody, and unfortunately the Russians are backing him...Assad still has backing. The middle class is still supporting Assad. They are afraid of what comes after him.
Homs under siege today
15.04 Britain's ambassador to Syria Simon Collis has written a blog post in which warns you "should not question what you know is true".
Addressing the abyss between what citizens in Syria are telling aid agencies and Western reporters, and what the Syrian state claims is happening, the ambassador says he has witnessed the regime's violence towards its people with his own eyes.
On 15 March 2011 we watched as 40 Syrians lined up outside the Ministry of Interior on Merjeh Square in central Damascus to protest silently the arbitrary detention of their friends and family. They made no provocative chants and advocated no violence. They simply held up pictures of their friends and family members that had been held in detention for months or years without trial. It was a scene of dignified and peaceful protest.
After 10 minutes, the regime had had enough. Plain clothed security forces moved in en masse. We stood and watched as they beat innocent civilians with sticks and batons. No care was taken for the elderly, for women, for the young children. All were treated with equal brutality.
This scene has been repeated time and again.
14.57 The death toll across Syria today has been revised to 37.
That includes the 23 who died in shelling this morning in Homs - some of whose bodies were "completely charred", according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
AFP elaborates on the other 14:
In Rastan, a town in Homs province, shelling killed an 11-year-old girl and a colonel in the regular army, said the Observatory.
A young woman was also killed in northwestern Idlib province and one man died in the southern region of Daraa, cradle of the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Two more people died in shelling and heavy gunfire as regime troops tried to storm the town of Zabadani, near the Syrian capital Damascus, the Observatory added.
In eastern Deir Ezzor province, machinegun fire wounded dozens of people including women and children in Koriyeh, the Observatory said, adding that army reinforcements were being sent into the town.
Elsewhere, a rebel ambush killed seven members of the security forces and wounded dozens of others near the town of Daraa, said activists.
14.34 A Syrian man has had his leg blown off after he stepped on a land mine fleeing the country into Lebanon, AFP is reporting.
The 26-year-old is being treated at a hospital in the Lebanese region of Akkar, officials told the agency.
From AFP:
Syria has planted mines along its border with northern Lebanon to prevent refugees streaming in, smuggling, or for Lebanon to become a safe haven for the opposition.
An injured Syrian fighter is carried into hospital in Idlib
14.30 Russia has taken a "cautious" view of the so-called "Friends of Syria" coalition which the US is attempting to forge.
The fledgling group may be set to meet in Turkey to coordinate humanitarian assistance for Syrians desperate for aid. But a Russian foreign ministry spokesman was not impressed with the idea. His remarks, as reported by AFP:
We take a generally cautious view of formats that we do not believe are legitimate for dealing with specific international disputes. We have had very bad experience working in such formats, and take a cautious attitude to various contact groups and groups of friends. As you remember, we had such unsuccessful experience in Libya.
13.31 Roy Greenslade has posted a Guardian blog about the death of an AFP journalist who worked for the newspaper as well as CNN and al Jazeera known as "Omar the Syrian", real name Mazhar Tayyara.
Greenslade writes:
One of his friends told AFP Tayyara was caught in a burst of shelling in the district of Khaldiyeh, a stronghold of dissent, while trying to help people wounded in the bombardment.
The friend said he was struck by shrapnel to the head, stomach and a leg and died of his injuries three hours later in hospital.
Tayyara had found his calling, the friend said, and "died doing what he believed was right".
12.57 The fighting in Syria is not just in Homs. This new Telegraph video shows members of the Free Syrian Army - including a number of Syrian Army defectors - preparing to defend themselves against Assad's forces in Idlib.
12.41 The Twitter account Arab Spring has posted a chilling picture they claim is one of the shells being used in Homs. The image has not been verified.
12.29 An AFP snap is claiming that seven Syrian security force members have been killed in a rebel ambush, according to activists. Hopefully more soon.
A rebel retreats for medical treatment in Idlib
12.27 The Arab League has said it will meet next week to discuss whether to recognise the Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of Syria, and whether to allow it to open offices in Arab capitals, AP is reporting.
11.41 There is a ominous lack of news coming out of Homs today, as Sky News video editor Shirish Kulkarni notes:
Many of the agencies so far are repeating the same statements from witnesses and activists used in their earlier takes for later pieces. Considering the speed at which updates were coming yesterday, it's unnerving.
10.59 More on the problems of military intervention in Syria - and why it this is a vastly different situation from the one faced in Libya a year ago - from CNN's Tim Lister, who writes:
Some also argue that, despite the price (of Western military intervention), there would also eventually be a strategic gain: a post-al-Assad Syria would unlikely be as close to Iran as is the current regime and might also deprive Hezbollah of critical regional support.
Others see the risks of international intervention as outweighing any benefits, with the danger that civil war would inevitably spill into Lebanon.
Body bags of victims of shelling in Homs
10.52 Time magazine have tweeted a link to a new photo essay from their photographer Alessio Romenzi in Homs. After counting 25 civilian casualties in two hours, he emailed to Time: "The word ‘safe’ is not in our dictionary these days.”
10.40 Germany is expelling four Syrian diplomats after the arrest several days ago of two men suspected of spying on the regime's opponents in Berlin, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.
09.58 The death toll in Homs this morning has been revised down to 24 - for now. AFP quotes Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who said:
Twenty three people have died in the shelling that began at dawn on the Baba Amr neighbourhood and one died in Khaldiyeh.
In total more than 400 people have died in Homss ince the assault began less than a week ago.
Another activist, Omar Shaker, told AFP that residents are hiding from the shelling in the ground floor of buildings as there are no underground shelters.
He said there are craters in the ground every 10 metres.
A Syrian woman prays for those killed in the attacks
09.39 A doctor in Baba Amr, one of the neighbourhoods in Homs most targeted by the regime forces, has told AFP that shells are "raining down on us". Ali Hazuri said the regime forces are using "heavy artillery".
08.53 Meanwhile in Israel, defence minister Ehud Barak has warned again of Israeli fears that Syrian's weapons could fall into the hands of Hezbollah.
He said Israel is tracking the issue "constantly and carefully" but did not elaborate.
The Telegraph's Phoebe Greenwood wrote recently that Israel is prepared to take action to prevent the weapons from falling into Hezbollah's hands:
Tel Aviv has expressed grave concerns about the fate of Syria's weaponry should Bashar al Assad fall, saying they pose as great a threat to Israeli security as Iranian nuclear development... Syria's massive stockpile of weapons includes surface-to-air missiles, high-trajectory long-range rockets and missiles, biological and chemical weapons, which are currently under the watchful guard of government troops.
Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak
08.49 China has revealed that a Syrian opposition delegation visited Beijing this week. Reuters reports that Chinese claims that the Syrian National Coordination Body for Democratic Change was in Beijing to meet with a vice foreign minister for four days.
A Chinese spokesman said:
Both sides exchanged views on the present situation in Syria and China explained its principles and position ... and called on all sides to immediately stop the violence.
The Syrian government should earnestly fulfil its promises, urgently begin an inclusive reform process that has wide participation, and resolve disputes and conflicts via talks and consultations ... China is willing to maintain contacts and communication with relevant Syrian opposition groups, is willing to push and encourage talks and make great efforts to ameliorate the situation.
He added that China will "make unstinting efforts towards peace and stability in Syria", and said the delegation "appreciated China's stance on the Middle East question and hoped it would play an even greater role so that Syria can emerge from the crisis at an early date".
08.35 The Telegraph also has a dispatch from Damascus, where brave residents - many of them women - are sheltering refugees from Homs, risking their lives for strangers desperate for a safe haven.
The correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, writes:
The activists took The Daily Telegraph to one safe house. A nine-year-old boy, the man of the house, opened the solid white metal door just enough to let us pass. His four sisters were hidden away in a side room for safety. Paunchy, with worn clothes, her hair array and deep bags under her eyes, the mother stood in the empty living room, too frightened and exhausted to speak of her ordeal. She and her family had fled from Karm Zeitoun district of Homs just one week before.
Jordanian riot police hold Syrian protesters back from the Syrian embassy in Amman
08.32 The Telegraph's Alex Spillius has spoken to a US State Department official who warns the international community may be forced to "militarise" the crisis.
He writes:
The official from the State Department told The Daily Telegraph that while the White House wants to exhaust all its diplomatic options, the debate in Washington has shifted away from diplomacy and towards more robust action since Russia and China blocked a United Nations resolution condemning Syria.
The Pentagon’s Central Command has begun a preliminary internal review of US military capabilities in the region, which one senior official called a “scoping exercise” that would provide options for the president if and when they were requested.
The White House said it was talking to allies about holding a “Friends of Syria” meeting in the near future and was considering delivering humanitarian aid to affected areas in the country.
08.25 Simon Tisdall has written a piece in The Guardian on the "Western conspiracy to do nothing", in which he warns that the foreign country doing the most in Syria right now is not the UK, Russia, or the US, but Iran.
The reality is that from Barack Obama down, nobody in the western camp, with diplomacy at a standstill, has a clue what to do. They know only what they cannot do - which, primarily, is not get involved in another Middle East war.
Not so the rulers of Iran... Assad's Syria is Iran's springboard into the Arab Middle East.
08.18 Some of the quotes included in the morning's papers are increasingly desperate. The Independent has spoken to Homs residents about the horrific report yesterday that 18 premature babies died in a hospital there when it was hit by power cuts - the "slaughter of the innocents". Mahmoud Araby, a 25-year-old student, told the newspaper:
The families were there when it happened. We were so angry and disgusted.
The inside of a home in Homs after shelling
08.03 The death toll in Homs is already climbing this morning with agencies reporting that at least 29 people have been killed since midnight as Assad's regime launches a fresh assault on citizens there.
From Reuters:
Syrian forces killed at least 29 people on Thursday in rocket and mortar bombardments of several districts of Homs, the heart of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, activists and opposition sources said.
They said the bombardments centred on the Baba Amro, Inshaat, Khalidiya, al-Bayyada and Jouret al-Shayyah districts of the city of one million people.
Earlier, the British-based opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 people had been killed in Baba Amro and another in Khalidiya.
08.00 GMT (10.00 Damascus) Good morning, we'll continue our live rolling Telegraph coverage of the uprising in Syria this morning as the government launches a new blitz on Homs, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon claims Russia and China's veto of the UN has emboldened the Assad regime, and a US official warns that the international community may have to "militarise" the crisis.
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