BEIRUT – Arab League officials arrived in Syria yesterday to prepare for monitors overseeing an Arab peace plan, after activists said President Bashar al-Assad’s forces carried out the deadliest assault in their nine-month crackdown on protests. The Syrian Observatory for Human Right said Syrian forces killed 111 civilians and activists on Tuesday when Assad’s forces surrounded them in the hills of Idlib province and unleashed two hours of bombardment and heavy gunfire.
France branded the killings an “unprecedented massacre,” and the US said Syrian authorities had “flagrantly violated their commitment to end violence.” Another 100 army deserters were either wounded or killed, making it the “bloodiest day of the Syrian revolution.” the Britishbased Observatory’s director, Rami Abdulrahman, said. Events in Syria are hard to verify because authorities, who say they are battling terrorists who have killed more than 1,100 soldiers and police, have banned most independent reporting. Tuesday’s bloodshed brought the death toll reported by activists in the last 48 hours to more than 200. The main opposition Syrian National Council said “gruesome murders” were carried out – including the beheading of a local imam – and demanded international action to protect civilians. The escalating death toll in nine months of popular unrest has raised the specter of civil war in Syria, with Assad, 46, still trying to stamp out protests with troops and tanks despite international sanctions.
France branded the killings an “unprecedented massacre,” and the US said Syrian authorities had “flagrantly violated their commitment to end violence.” Another 100 army deserters were either wounded or killed, making it the “bloodiest day of the Syrian revolution.” the Britishbased Observatory’s director, Rami Abdulrahman, said. Events in Syria are hard to verify because authorities, who say they are battling terrorists who have killed more than 1,100 soldiers and police, have banned most independent reporting. Tuesday’s bloodshed brought the death toll reported by activists in the last 48 hours to more than 200. The main opposition Syrian National Council said “gruesome murders” were carried out – including the beheading of a local imam – and demanded international action to protect civilians. The escalating death toll in nine months of popular unrest has raised the specter of civil war in Syria, with Assad, 46, still trying to stamp out protests with troops and tanks despite international sanctions.
No comments:
Post a Comment