By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
(Reuters) - Syrian forces killed 15 civilians in the city of
Homs on Wednesday, an activists' group said, despite international calls for
President Bashar al-Assad to end a bloody crackdown on protests against his
rule.
The United States said the
world was watching Syria "in horror" and slapped
sanctions on a Syrian bank and mobile phone company. Turkish Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan, who sent his foreign minister to Damascus on Tuesday to urge an
end to the bloodshed, said Syria "is pointing guns at its own people".
At least 1,700 civilians have
been killed since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted in March, rights
groups say. Syria says 500 soldiers and police have died.
State television said the army
pulled out of the central city of Hama after a 10-day campaign in a symbolic
protest center in which scores of people were reported killed, and showed
footage of troops leaving the northern town of Idlib.
But the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said an armored force killed at least 15 civilians in an assault
on the Bab Amro residential district of Homs on Wednesday evening.
"The neighborhood is
witnessing a massacre," Observatory director Rami Abdelrahman told
Reuters. Forces deployed in Homs, 165 km (100 miles) north of the capital
Damascus, three months ago and occupied the main square, after large protests
demanding an end to 41 years of Assad family rule.
Abdelrahman said two people
were also killed in the suburbs of Damascus while a woman was killed earlier
when troops and tanks swept into two northern towns near the Turkish border.
Syria has banned independent
media from Homs and the rest of Syria, making it difficult to verify events on
the ground.
In Deir al-Zor, residents
reported heavy gunfire as troops deployed across the eastern city, making
arrests, bombarding a mosque and spraying pro-Assad slogans on buildings.
"WATCHING WITH
HORROR"
The White House said U.S.
President Barack Obama believes Syria would be better off without Assad and the
United States plans to keep pressure on the Syrian government.
"We are all watching
with horror at what he is doing to his own people," White House spokesman
Jay Carney said.
Earlier the U.S. Treasury
Department announced new sanctions which it said were aimed at the financial
infrastructure helping to hold up Assad's government.
It said it was designating
the Commercial Bank of Syria, a Syrian state-owned financial institution, and
its Lebanon-based subsidiary, Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank, under a
presidential executive order that targets proliferators of weapons of mass
destruction and their supporters.
It also designated Syriatel,
Syria's largest mobile phone operator, under an executive order targeting
Syrian officials and others responsible for human rights abuses in the country.
The Turkish leader said he hoped
that Assad, confronting nearly five months of pro-democracy demonstrations,
would take steps within 10 to 15 days toward promised political reforms.
Already under Western
sanctions targeting him and his top officials, Assad faces growing pressure to
curb the bloodshed. Three regional powers publicly called for change this week,
leaving Iran as Syria's only staunch remaining
ally.
Sunni heavyweight Saudi Arabia condemned the violence and recalled
its ambassador while Egypt's new government, which took office after Hosni
Mubarak's overthrow in February, said Syria was nearing "the point of no
return".
On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmed Davutoglu held more than three hours of talks with Assad to seek
an end to the violence, swift elections and dialogue with the opposition.
In response Assad said Syria
"will not relent in pursuing terrorist groups in order to protect the
stability of the country and security of the citizens ... but is also
determined to continue reforms", Syria's state news agency said.
Assad told a delegation of
Indian, Brazilian and South African officials that Syria would complete a
reform of the constitution by March next year and Foreign Minister Walid
al-Moualem said a parliamentary election would be held this year.
"Moualem reiterated that
Syria will be a free, pluralistic and multi-party democracy before the end of
the year," said a statement issued by the group after their talks.
ARMY OFFENSIVE
In Deir al-Zor, witnesses said
on Wednesday tanks and armored vehicles had spread across the city, and
residents had reversed earlier pledges to resist any army assault by force.
"The inhabitants of Deir
al-Zor have taken a collective decision not to resist, so as not to give
excuses to the authorities to spread their propaganda about terrorists and
armed groups," one resident said.
"We are hearing the sound
of machineguns and shells." He said he heard that soldiers and military
intelligence officers had a list of 364 activists they were hunting.
Other residents had also
reported that the army shelled the Othman Ibn Affan mosque, where protests had
first erupted, he said. Footage broadcast by Al Jazeera television showed the
top third of the minaret crashing to the ground after being struck.
The resident also said he saw
troops spraying slogans on houses such as "Assad or no one" and
"The people want the army to come in".
Authorities have denied that
any Deir al-Zor assault took place. They say they have faced attacks since the
protests erupted, blaming armed saboteurs for civilian deaths.
Hama and Deir al-Zor are
populated mostly by majority Sunnis and the crackdowns there resonate with
their co-religionists who predominate in the Middle East and govern most Arab
countries.
(Additional reporting by
Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara and Doug Palmer, Alister Bull and Tabassum
Zakaria in Washington,
Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Robert
Woodward)
Source : Reuters
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