Wednesday, May 09, 2012

WORLD_ Syria blast near UN convoy going to Deraa

Syria blast near UN convoy going to Deraa
9 May 2012 Last updated at 11:17 GMT

 

The explosion hit the end of the convoy, damaging a Syrian military truck and wounding a number of soldiers
 

An explosion has hit a Syrian military truck escorting a convoy of UN observers near the city of Deraa, just seconds after UN staff had passed by.


The head of the UN team, Maj Gen Robert Mood, was in the convoy, but neither he nor any of the other monitors was hurt.

Eyewitnesses said at least three Syrian soldiers were wounded. The windows of the truck were shattered.
 

The observers are in Syria as part of the joint UN-Arab League peace plan and began deploying last month.

There are now about 70 monitors in Syria but their presence has had no effect in quelling the violence.
 

Deraa was where the uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.


 'Dance of death'

An Associated Press reporter travelling in the UN convoy said the explosion blew out the military truck's windows and caused a plume of thick black smoke.
 
It is not clear who was behind the blast. However, the opposition Syrian National Council is blaming the government, saying the explosion is part of a campaign to drive the UN monitors out of the country.

Meanwhile, the BBC's Lyse Doucet, who has been to the Syrian city of Homs, says there is constant shooting there, despite a ceasefire between government and opposition forces.


Our correspondent, who spent the night in Homs, also heard heavier weapons being fired.
She saw UN observers patrolling the city but said entire neighbourhoods were deserted.

In other developments, UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told the Security Council that arms were being smuggled in both directions between Lebanon and Syria.


"What we see across the region is a dance of death at the brink of the abyss of war," he told reporters later, the AFP news agency reported.
Syrian troops fired across the border into Lebanon, killing a 75-old-woman and wounding her daughter, according to the Reuters news agency.


The report, quoting residents and a doctor in the town of al-Qaa, says the two women were sitting on the steps of a mosque when they were hit by gunfire on Wednesday morning.


The UN estimates about 26,000 Syrians have fled across the border to Lebanon, most of them in the north.

On Tuesday, UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan told the Security Council that his peace plan could be the "last chance to avoid civil war" in Syria.


He told a closed session that the plan was "not an open-ended commitment" and highlighted continuing violations.


Mr Annan said he was particularly concerned that torture, mass arrests and other human rights violations were "intensifying".


He also told the council that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad bore "primary responsibility" for ending the military campaign.


The UN says at least 9,000 people have died since pro-democracy protests began in March 2011. In February, Syria's government put the death toll at 3,838 - 2,493 civilians and 1,345 security forces personnel.


Syria heavily restricts access to foreign journalists and the reports cannot be independently verified.

Eyewitness



There's a constant crackle of gunfire in this city and occasional bursts of heavier shelling. There is no ceasefire in Homs. A small team of UN monitors is on the ground patrolling in white armoured vehicles, moving through areas controlled by the government and the opposition.

This is a divided city. Yesterday, two new military observers arrived here. Ironically they're from Yemen, a country grappling with its own violent confrontation.


In Syria, Homs has borne the brunt of violence in a 14-month-long uprising. Whole neighbourhoods are deserted. In places like Baba Amr not a single building seems to have escaped a government crackdown. It feels like a virtual ghost town.





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
09052012

___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC


No comments: