Syrian soldiers killed in clash with defectors

BEIRUT (AP) — Dozens of soldiers and security forces were gunned down by suspected army defectors in southern Syria, a deadly ambush that comes as President Bashar Assad increasingly appears unable to manage the crisis, activists said Tuesday.

Monday's hours-long clash in the southern province of Daraa came on a particularly bloody day in Syria, with as many as 90 people killed across the country. The brazen attack by the army defectors suggested a new confidence among troops who have sided with the protesters and highlighted the potential for an armed confrontation to escalate.

Pro-Syrian regime protesters, hold portraits of Syrian President Bashar Assad and shout slogans against the Arab League, as they gather outside the Syrian foreign ministry where Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem helds a press conference, in Damascus, Syria, on Monday Nov. 14, 2011. Syria's foreign minister accused Arab states on Monday of conspiring against Damascus after the Arab League voted to suspend Syria's membership over the government's deadly crackdown on an eight month-old uprising. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)

The U.N. estimates the regime's military crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising has killed 3,500 people in the past eight months. November is shaping up to be the bloodiest month of the revolt, with well over 300 people killed so far.

The latest death toll was compiled by sources including British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Local Coordination Committees activist coalition and morgue officials.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the observatory, confirmed that 34 soldiers were killed in an ambush in Daraa, the birthplace of the uprising that began in mid-March, inspired by successful revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and later Libya.

Although activists say the protests have remained largely peaceful, with demonstrators calling for the regime's downfall, an armed insurgency has developed in recent months targeting Assad's military and security forces.

Assad is facing the most severe challenge to his family's four-decade rule in Syria, with former allies as well as Western nations using increasingly harsh rhetoric in urging him to stop his bloody crackdown. On Tuesday, Turkey said it no longer has confidence in the Syrian regime and warned Assad that his brutal crackdown threatens to place him on a list of leaders who "feed on blood."

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's comments were a blow to Syria, because the countries once cultivated close ties. But Turkish leaders have grown increasingly frustrated with Damascus over its refusal to halt the attacks on protesters.

Adding to the blow, Turkey also on Tuesday canceled plans for joint oil exploration in Syria and threatened to cut electricity supplies after a spate of attacks on Ankara's embassy in Damascus and consulates the cities of Aleppo and Latakia.

On Monday, Jordan's King Abdullah II said Assad should step down for the good of his country, the first Arab leader to publicly make such a call.

That prompted pro-government protesters to converge on Jordan's embassy in Damascus, with three of them scaling the fence and ripping down the Jordanian flag — the latest in a string of attacks on foreign missions. Jordan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Kayed said no one entered the embassy and no injuries occurred.

Monday's bloodiest attacks were in Daraa province, along the Jordanian border, including the attack that killed 34 soldiers. According to the observatory, 12 defectors and 23 civilians also killed in the area.

A resident near the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in Daraa province said he heard more than four hours of intense gunfire. He asked that his name not be used for fear of government reprisals.

Another witness, who is an activist in the area, said he counted the bodies of 12 people, believed to be civilians killed by security forces' fire.

"I saw two army armored personnel carriers, totally burnt," he told The Associated Press by telephone. He also asked for anonymity out of fear for his safety.

In the restive city of Homs, the morgue received 19 corpses, all of them shot.

Other activist groups had slightly different figures of those killed, a common occurrence because the Syrian government has prevented independent reporting and barred most foreign journalists. Details gathered by activist groups and witnesses are key channels of information.

Syria's crackdown has brought international condemnation, but Damascus generally had been spared broad reproach in the Arab world. That changed Saturday, with a near-unanimous vote by the 22-member Arab League to suspend Syria, and the situation appeared to be spiraling out of Assad's control.

Earlier Monday, Syria struck back at its international critics, branding an Arab League decision to suspend its membership as "shameful and malicious" and accusing other Arabs of conspiring with the West to undermine the regime.

The sharp rebuke suggests Damascus fears the United States and its allies might use the rare Arab consensus to press for tougher sanctions at the United Nations.

Assad says extremists pushing a foreign agenda to destabilize Syria are behind the unrest, not true reform-seekers aiming to open the country's autocratic political system.

Source: The Associated Press

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Syria's Assad says intervention will burn region

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad warned against Western intervention in his country's 7-month-old uprising, saying such action would trigger an "earthquake" that "would burn the whole region."

Assad comments, published in an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph, were made against a backdrop of growing calls from anti-regime protesters for a no-fly zone over Syria and increasingly frequent clashes between government troops and army defectors, which left at least 30 troops dead late Saturday.

"Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake," Assad said. "Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?"

Assad's remarks appeared to reflect his regime's increasing concern about foreign intervention in the country's crisis after the recent death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was toppled by a popular uprising backed by NATO airstrikes.

Syrian opposition leaders have not called for an armed uprising like the one in Libya and have for the most part opposed foreign intervention, and the U.S. and its allies have shown little appetite for intervening in another Arab nation in turmoil. But with the 7-month-old revolt against Assad stalemated, some Syrian protesters have begun calling for a no-fly zone over the country because of fears the regime might use its air force now that army defectors are becoming more active in fighting the security forces.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a clash Saturday night in the restive central city of Homs between soldiers and gunmen believed to be army defectors left at least 20 soldiers dead and 53 wounded. It also said gunmen ambushed a bus carrying security officers late Saturday in the northwestern province of Idlib, killing at least 10 security agents. One attacker was also killed.

The Associated Press could not verify the activist's accounts. Syria has banned most foreign media and restricted local coverage, making it impossible to get independent confirmation of the events on the ground. Syria's state-run news agency SANA, said seven members of the military and police, who were killed in Homs and the suburbs of Damascus were buried Sunday.

The unrest in Syria could send unsettling ripples through the region, as Damascus' web of alliances extends to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, the militant Palestinian Hamas and Iran's Shiite theocracy.

Aware of those concerns at home and abroad, Assad said "any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region."

The uprising against the Syrian regime began during a wave of anti-government protests in the Arab world that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The U.N. says that Assad's crackdown has left more than 3,000 people dead since the uprising began in mid-March.

Facing an unprecedented threat to his rule, Assad is desperate to show that only he can guarantee security in a troubled region where failed states abound.

In a show of support to Assad's regime, thousands of Syrians carrying the nation's flag and Assad posters rallied Sunday in a major square in the southern city of Sweida, some 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Damascus, near the Jordanian border. There have been two similar massive pro-Assad demonstrations in recent days in the capital Damascus and the coastal city of Latakia.

Assad said that Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely." He was apparently referring to a wave of sanctions that were imposed by the European Union and the U.S.

"But Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different," Assad said.

The Syrian president described the uprising as a "struggle between Islamism and pan-Arabism." He was referring to his ruling Baath party's secular ideology and the Muslim Brotherhood that was crushed by his regime in 1982.

"We've been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s and we are still fighting with them," Assad said.

Assad, speaking to Russia's state Channel One television in an interview broadcast Sunday, hailed the Russian veto of a European-backed U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria that aimed to impose sanctions on Damascus. He added that Syria will count on continued support from Moscow.

"We are relying on Russia as a country with which we have strong historic ties," Assad said.

The measure vetoed by Russia and China earlier this month would have been the first legally binding resolution against Syria since Assad's forces began attacking civilian protesters.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Syria troops fire on protesters, killing 8

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters in several parts of the country on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding scores, while masked gunmen burst into an apartment in the predominantly Kurdish northeast and shot dead one of Syria's most prominent opposition figures.

Another leading opposition figure was beaten up by pro-government gunmen and rushed to a hospital in Damascus, activists said.

The slaying of Mashaal Tammo, a 53-year-old former political prisoner and a spokesman for the Kurdish Future Party, was the latest in a string of targeted killings in Syria as the country slides further into disorder, seven months into the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, stands next to Syrian Defense Minister Gen. Dawoud Rajha, right, and Chief of Staff Gen. Fahed al-Jasem el-Freij, left, during a ceremony to mark the 38th anniversary of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Syrian troops stormed villages close to the border with Turkey on Thursday, hunting armed military defectors who fought back in clashes that left at least four soldiers and three others dead, activists said. (AP Photo/SANA) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Tammo, killed by unknown gunmen in the city of Qamishli, was also a member of the executive committee of the newly formed Syrian National Council, a broad-based front bringing together opposition figures inside and outside the country in an attempt to unify the deeply fragmented dissident movement.

Tammo's son and another member of the Kurdish Future Party were wounded in the attack, said Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for an activist group called the Local Coordination Committees.

Qamishli erupted in protests as thousands of outraged people took to the streets and swarmed the hospital were Tammo was taken, many of them shouting "Azadi," the Kurdish word for freedom, said Mustafa Osso, a Kurdish lawyer and activist from the city.

Tammo, a vocal regime opponent, had been instrumental in organizing anti-government protests in Qamishli in recent months.

"The regime is responsible for this killing," Osso said. "Mashaal had no enemies, his only crime was that he was a political activist and a supporter of the revolution," he added.

The killing could spark violent protests in the Kurdish region at a time when Syria's security forces already have their hands full in trying to stamp out dissent across much of the rest of the country. Kurds — the largest ethnic minority in Syria — make up 15 percent of the country's 23 million people and have long complained of neglect and discrimination.

Assad granted citizenship in April to stateless Kurds in eastern Syria in an attempt to address some of the protesters' grievances.

Tammo's assassination was similar to other recent targeted killings in Syria by unknown gunmen, raising concerns the country might be sliding toward civil war. The most recent was the assassination of the son of Syria's top Sunni cleric, who died in a hail of bullets outside the university where he studied earlier this week.

Several academics and physicists have also been shot dead by gunmen in the past month, most of them in the country's restive central and northern regions.

In what has become a weekly ritual of protests and violence, security forces opened fire at Friday rallies by tens of thousands of marchers in the streets of several Syrian cities, towns and villages. At least eight people were killed and scores were wounded, according to various activists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least four people were killed and 25 were wounded in the central city of Homs, Syria's third largest city. It also reported intense shooting in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq, and the Damascus suburb of Douma.

In Douma, the Observatory said at least three people were killed and several were wounded, while five were wounded in the northern town of Maaret al-Numan.

Osso said one person was also killed in the town of Zabadani near the border with Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Riad Seif, a former lawmaker who became a leading opposition figure and outspoken critic of Assad's regime, was beaten up outside a mosque in the central Damascus suburb of Midan, according to two Syria-based activists.

Seif, who suffers from cancer and had been detained earlier this year, was rushed to hospital after the beating, said Osso and Idilbi. Amateur video posted on the Internet showed Seif at the hospital, with bruises to his back and hands.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland lamented the "absolutely gruesome" online footage of Seif being attacked, and the separate shooting that claimed the life of Tammo.

"Both of these guys were opposition advocates, who advocated nonviolence and were peaceful themselves," Nuland told reporters.

The Local Coordination Committees also reported heavy shooting in the village of Jassem in the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising against Assad's regime began seven months ago.

Since mid-March, the Syrian government crackdown has left at least 2,900 people dead, including members of security forces, according to the U.N.'s human rights office. The figure rose by at least 200 since the beginning of September.

Source:

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Syrian troops fire at anti-regime protesters

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters Friday as thousands rallied across the country to call for the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regime, activists said. Troops also clashed with armed anti-regime forces in central regions.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one person was killed in the central city of Hama and at least seven people were wounded in another central area, Homs.

In this citizen journalism image made on a mobile phone and provided by Shaam News Network, Anti-Syrian President Bashar Assad protesters, shout slogans as they protest at al-kessour area, in Homs province, Syria, late Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011. Angry supporters of President Bashar Assad's regime hurled tomatoes and eggs at the U.S. ambassador to Syria as he entered the office of a leading opposition figure and then tried to break into the building, trapping him inside for three hours. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTO

The protests spread from the capital, Damascus, and its suburbs to the southern province of Daraa, the northwestern province of Idlib as well as Hama and Homs.

Many of the protesters expressed solidarity with residents of the rebellious town of Rastan just north of Homs, where fighting has been raging for three days between troops and army defectors.

Amateur videos posted online by activists showed thousands of people shouting in support of the rebellion in Rastan, where fighting continued Friday.

"Rastan will overthrow the regime," read one banner waved by protesters in the Damascus neighborhood of Qadam. Many of the protesters there covered their faces with scarves or masks to hide their identities.

The Syrian government has banned foreign journalists and placed heavy restrictions on local media coverage, making it difficult to independently verify events on the ground.

The U.N. says some 2,700 people have already died in the government crackdown against the uprising that began in mid-March.

The protests on Friday followed the week's main Muslim prayer services and were similar to demonstrations held across Syria every Friday for the past six months since the uprising against Assad erupted in the country's south.

A military official said Friday that two days of clashes between Syrian troops and anti-Assad forces in Rastan killed seven soldiers and policemen.

The official said 32 Syrian troops were also wounded in the fighting as government forces conducted a "qualitative" operation on Thursday and Friday in an effort to crush "gunmen" holed up inside the town.

The government describes its armed opponents there as "terrorist armed groups," not army defectors.

The official said the gunmen had terrorized citizens, blocked roads and set up barriers and explosives, and were responsible for the deaths of the seven troops. The comments by the unidentified official were carried by state-run news agency, SANA, on Friday.

Rastan has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting in the six-month uprising against Assad, pitting the military against hundreds of army defectors, according to activists.

The town, from which the Syrian army draws many of its Sunni Muslim recruits, has seen some of the largest numbers of defections to date. A prominent human rights activist estimated there were around 2,000 defectors fighting in Rastan and nearby Talbiseh as well as in the Jabal al-Zawiyah region in the northern Idlib province.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The defectors, as well as reports that once-peaceful Syrian protesters are increasingly taking up arms to fight the six-month old government crackdown, have raised concerns of the risk of civil war in Syria.

Syria has a volatile sectarian divide, making civil unrest one of the most dire scenarios. The Assad regime is dominated by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, but the country is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.

The report carried by SANA Friday was an acknowledgment of the stiff resistance and ongoing clashes in Rastan.

The military official said the confrontation resulted in the killing and detention of many of the gunmen. He said Syrian troops were still pursuing members of the terrorist groups in an effort to restore security to Rastan.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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EU bans imports of Syrian oil over crackdown

BEIRUT (AP) — The European Union banned oil imports from Syria on Friday in a move that will cost the embattled regime millions of dollars each day as it uses deadly force to try to crush a 5-month-old uprising. The same day, activists said, at least six people were killed in the crackdown. The deaths came as President Bashar Assad's security forces fired on thousands of anti-government protesters and surrounded mosques in southern and eastern cities to prevent worshippers from streaming into the streets to join the rallies, activists said. 

In this citizen journalism image made on a mobile phone and provided by Shaam News Network, anti government protesters hold Arabic placards reading:"The Friday of Death Rather Than Humiliation", center right, and "We want the free media to enter and reveal the truth", center left,during a demonstration against the Syrian regime, at Andan village, in Aleppo province, Syria, on Friday Sept. 2, 2011. Syria faced international calls for tougher sanctions as anti-government protesters vowed Friday they will choose death over humiliation at the hands of the regime. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTO

The U.N. estimates some 2,200 people have been killed since March as protesters face a barrage of shells and sniper fire. The regime is in no imminent danger of collapse, but the protesters are determined, leading to concerns violence could escalate. On Friday, Syrian protesters marched under the slogan "Death Rather Than Humiliation." The EU oil ban follows other international sanctions and blistering worldwide condemnation. The EU ban covers the purchase, import and transport of oil and other petroleum products from Syria. The EU also has banned European banks from opening credit lines for such sales, and prohibited insurance companies from insuring the cargos. In addition to the oil ban, four more Syrian individuals and three entities were added to a list of those facing an EU asset freeze and travel ban. Over the past few months, the EU has imposed travel bans and asset freezes against 35 Syrian government officials and military and police commanders, including Assad himself. Syria exports some 150,000 barrels of oil per day, generating $7 million to $8 million daily, according to David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The vast majority of that oil goes to the European Union. Without that revenue, Syria will likely burn through foreign reserves far more quickly. It had $17 billion in reserves at the start of the uprising. Still, some analysts believe Syria is getting financial assistance from Iran, which would cushion the EU blow. Syria gets about 28 percent of its revenue from the oil trade and sells fuel to France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The EU has in the past been reluctant to ban Syrian oil and gas imports for fear of the impact on the Syrian public and small businesses. The EU oil embargo will bring the 27-nation bloc in line with the latest U.S. moves to isolate Assad's regime, including a ban on the import of petroleum or related products. In Poland, foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki told The Associated Press that the embargo is taking effect on Saturday. He said that EU foreign ministers meeting in the Baltic Sea resort of Sopot, in Poland, were to discuss the situation in Syria later Friday. Some EU nations have been lobbying for other sectors to be added to the sanctions regime, including telecommunications and banking. Recent weeks have seen a subtle change in tone among some activists, who are calling on Syrians to take up arms and inviting foreign military action like the intervention that helped topple the government of Libya. "The possibility of conflict in Syria entering a new phase is becoming more likely following almost six months of largely peaceful protests ... and growing external pressure," according to a briefing by Maplecroft, a British-based risk analysis company. Syrian troops fanned out Friday in cities including Daraa in the south and the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syria has banned foreign journalists and restricted local coverage, making it difficult to independently confirm events on the ground.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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