Syrian forces fire on anti-regime protesters
Cease-fire » The U.N. is trying to ramp up humanitarian response.
By BASSEM MROUE
The Associated Press
First Published 5 hours ago • Updated 3 hours ago
Beirut • Syrian troops fired on thousands of protesters who spilled out of mosques after noon prayers Friday, and state media reported that a roadside bomb killed 10 soldiers as the latest diplomatic efforts failed to halt more than 13 months of bloodshed in the country.
The United Nations hopes to have 30 cease-fire monitors in Syria next week and plans are being made for the deployment of up to 300, though Syria is still balking at U.N. demands that observers be able to use their own helicopters and planes to visit hotspots.
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European nations and Russia have proposed rival U.N. resolutions on cease-fire monitors. The key difference in the texts — circulated Friday morning to the Security Council and obtained by The Associated Press — is whether there should be any conditions on the deployment of the larger observer force.
The draft proposed by Russia, Syria’s closest ally, does not include any conditions.
The European draft says the expanded force would be deployed "expeditiously" after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon notifies the council that Syria has implemented its pledge to withdraw all troops and heavy weapons from cities and towns "to his satisfaction."
The U.N. is also trying to ramp up its humanitarian response and send more food, medicine and aid workers to Syria, said John Ging, the head of emergency response at the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"The whole infrastructure of the country is under strain," Ging said. He added that the Syrian regime has finally acknowledged that there is a "serious humanitarian need" and that this should ease the aid mission.
The U.N. estimates some 230,000 Syrians have been displaced and more than 9,000 killed since the uprising against President Bashar Assad erupted more than a year ago. The revolt began with largely peaceful protests, but has grown increasingly violent as the opposition has taken up arms in response to a brutal regime crackdown.
A U.N.-brokered cease-fire that technically went into effect last week has been steadily unraveling, with regime forces continuing to shell rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs and opposition fighters ambushing government troops. Still, the truce is still seen as the most viable way to end the bloodshed, simply for a lack of other options.
Western powers have called for Assad’s ouster, but the Syrian leader has dug in, unleashing his military on an ill-equipped and fractured opposition, and there appears to be little appetite in the international community to try to dislodge him by force with an operation similar to the one that helped topple Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi last year.
Instead, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Thursday for the U.N. Security Council to adopt an arms embargo and other tough measures against Syria. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took a hard line against Damascus, saying Syria was not honoring the cease-fire and that violence was escalating.
As part of the truce, Assad was to withdraw troops and tanks from urban centers and allow peaceful anti-regime marches, which the opposition has staged every Friday since the uprising began. He has ignored both provisions and continued attacking opposition strongholds, though the overall level of violence is down compared to the period before the truce.
On Friday, protests were reported in the capital Damascus and its suburbs, as well as in the northern city of Aleppo, the central regions of Hama and Homs, in eastern towns near the border with Iraq and in the southern province of Daraa. Demonstrators spilled out from mosques onto the streets, calling for Assad’s downfall and chanting in support of the country’s rebel forces, activists said.
"Security is extremely tight in Damascus," said activist Maath al-Shami, adding that despite the heavy presence of plainclothes security agents, there were protests in the capital’s neighborhoods of Qaboun, Midan, Barzeh and Mazzeh.
He said troops fired in the air to disperse the protesters. Activists also said troops opened fire at protesters in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, as well as the central city of Hama. They had no immediate word on casualties.
In the rebel-held Khaldiyeh neighborhood in the central city of Homs, which has become the heart of the uprising, a mortar round was striking every five minutes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. An amateur video posted online by activists showed thick black smoke billowing as shells fell in a residential area.
smoke billowing as shells fell in a residential area.
The Observatory said eight civilians were killed in Homs on Friday, including a family of three whose home was struck by a shell. The group reported three more civilians were killed by army fire in other parts of Syria.
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http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/53955889-68/syria-fire-regime-syrian.html.csp?page=2
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