WORLD_ New sanctions on Syria as fighting rages

New sanctions on Syria as fighting rages
AFP

August 11, 2012 3:55PM

Syrian government troops patrol the streets in Aleppo.   Source: AFP

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Istanbul for talks on the conflict in Syria with Turkish leaders after Washington slapped fresh sanctions on Bashar al-Assad's regime and its allies.

Her visit came as fierce fighting continued to rage in the Syrian city of Aleppo, where several people died when a shell crashed into a bakery as hundreds of residents queued for bread.

Reporters said about a dozen people, including three children, were killed and 20 wounded at the bakery in the eastern Tariq al-Bab district of the increasingly desperate northern city.

And troops repelled a rebel attack on Aleppo's international airport, state news agency SANA reported. "Mercenary terrorists'' had tried to attack it but the "army hit back and killed most of them''.

In the latest clashes, Aleppo's historic Citadel, part of a UNESCO-listed world heritage site, was heavily damaged by bombing, the opposition said.

The violence raged on as world powers prepared to name veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi as their new envoy to seek an end to a 17-month uprising that has cost more than 21,000 lives.

Ms Clinton arrived in Istanbul for talks with Turkish leaders as the US warned that Syria's allies Iran and Hezbollah could be planning attacks on Western targets, with Washington imposing fresh sanctions on the regime and on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Mr Clinton flew in from Benin after wrapping up a marathon 11-day, nine-nation Africa tour. She is expected to discuss with Turkey's leaders ways to effectively enforce sanctions against Damascus.

Washington overnight announced sanctions against Syrian state oil company Sytrol for trading with Iran, in a bid to starve the regimes in both Tehran and Damascus of much-needed revenue.

The sanctions, also against Hezbollah, are designed to increase pressure on the Assad regime as the conflict escalates sharply after the failure of former UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan and his dramatic resignation.

On the ground, a rebel commander, Hossam Abu Mohammed, said his men were still fighting in parts of Aleppo's southwestern district of Salaheddin after most fled on Thursday in the face of heavy bombing and advancing troops.

"We will not let Salaheddin go,'' the Free Syrian Army's Abu Mohammed told AFP by telephone on the third day of a government offensive to take the city.

The army again bombed parts of Salaheddin, as well as the Sakhur and Hanano districts in the northeast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At least 103 people were killed nationwide on Friday, including 55 civilians, the watchdog said. One of those killed was a 19-year-old protester shot dead by regime forces in Aleppo.

In the central city of Homs, the army pounded the rebel stronghold of Khaldiyeh with ``dozens'' of people killed or wounded, the Observatory said.

The opposition Syrian National Council said Aleppo's 13th-century Citadel, part of a complex of sites in the city's historic heart that the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation says is of "outstanding universal value,'' had been damaged in army shelling. It was not possible to independently verify the claim.

Also on Friday, rebels captured three journalists who work for Syrian public television Ikhbariya as they accompanied government troops operating near Damascus, the Observatory said.
Ikhbariya later said it had lost contact with its crew.

Britain said it would give the rebels five million pounds £5 million in non-lethal assistance, including body armour and communications equipment.

On the humanitarian front, the International Committee for the Red Cross said the Syrian Red Crescent had suspended most of its work in Aleppo because of the extreme danger, but that dozens of volunteers were still working.

A statement in Geneva said the ICRC had managed on Thursday to deliver food and other essential to cover the needs of at least 12,500 people in the city of some 2.7 million people.

AFP



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