By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
(Reuters) - Syrian tanks fired on low-income Sunni Muslim
districts in the port city of Latakia on Tuesday, the fourth day of an assault
which has killed 36 people and forced thousands of Palestinian refugees to
flee, activists said.
A senior Palestinian official
described the military offensive in the city as "a crime against
humanity," adding to Arab condemnation of President Bashar al-Assad's
crackdown on popular demonstrations calling for his overthrow.
After five months of unrest,
Assad, from Syria's minority Alawite community, has broadened and intensified
the military assault against main urban centres of protest since the start of
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on August 1.
The Local Coordination
Committees said Assad's forces killed at least two people in Latakia, including
13-year-old Mohammad Shohan, hit by sniper fire in the Raml al-Filistini slum
district, bringing the death toll to 36 in four days.
The activists' group said the
death toll was probably higher, but roadblocks and disrupted communications
made it hard to gather information on casualties in the stricken city.
Syria has expelled most
independent media since the unrest began, making it difficult to verify reports
from the country.
A security official cited by
Syria's official state news agency said security forces backed by an army unit
had completed a mission in Latakia's al-Raml neighbourhood against "armed
terrorist groups who have terrorised the citizens."
A Latakia resident, a
university student who did not want to be named, said tank machinegun fire
could still be heard in the neighbourhood and that tanks and armoured vehicles
moved deeper into the city, including the main Port Said street.
"We can only hear the
tank fire. Anyone who goes near al-Raml al-Filistini risks being arrested or
shot," he said.
A senior Palestinian official
condemned the Latakia violence, which the United Nations said had forced
between 5,000 and 10,000 Palestinians to flee the Al Raml refugee camp.
"The shelling is taking
place using gunships and tanks on houses built from tin, on people who have no
place to run to or even a shelter to hide in," Yasser Abed Rabbo, the West
Bank-based PLO secretary general, told Reuters.
"This is a crime against
humanity."
The United Nations agency
which cares for Palestinian refugees said on Monday four had been killed and 17
wounded.
Syrian forces killed a
16-year-old boy when they fired on a protest in the eastern city of Deir
al-Zor, residents said, hours after the authorities said the army was pulling
out.
Nibras al-Sayyah was hit by
bullets fired by military intelligence personnel to disperse hundreds of people
who marched at night after Ramadan prayers, the residents said.
Witnesses said most tanks and
troop carriers had pulled out of Deir al-Zor, which they attacked on August 7,
and moved to the outskirts. Many troops remained in the city and were storming
houses looking for wanted dissidents, they said.
"BREAKING BONES"
"The regime seems intent
on breaking the bones of the uprising across the country this week, but the
people are not backing down. Demonstrations in Deir al-Zor are regaining
momentum," one activist in the city said.
Apart from Deir al-Zor and
Latakia, Syrian forces have already stormed Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre by
the military under Assad's father, the southern city of Deraa and several
northwestern towns in a province bordering Turkey.
Syrian authorities blame
others for the violence, saying anti-government forces have killed 500 soldiers
and police. Rights groups say at least 1,700 civilians have been killed by
security forces since protests erupted in March.
Turkey, once a close ally of
Assad, ruled out foreign intervention in Syria but said attacks on civilians
were unacceptable, keeping up pressure on the Syrian leader.
"We do not want foreign
intervention in Syria but we do not accept and will not accept any operations
against civilians," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, a day after he
urged Assad to halt such assaults immediately and unconditionally, saying this
was Ankara's "final word." [ID:nL5E7JF1C0]
Turkey's foreign ministry
denied a report it was planning to set up some form of buffer zone in the
Syrian border area, where Syrian troops have pursued people fleeing for Turkey.
Yasser Saad, a dissident
Syrian commentator, said Turkey was concerned about the fate of Sunni
co-religionists in Latakia, which has a significant Alawite minority.
"The popular Syrian
movement still regards the Alawite community as an important part of the
national mosaic," he said, urging Alawite notables to "declare a
clear stand regarding the crimes of the regime and not allow the sect to be
used as human shields that falls with the fall of the regime."
Assad has been repeatedly told
by the United States, European Union and Turkey to halt the bloodshed but said
last week his army would "not relent in pursuing terrorist groups."
The Geneva-based U.N. Human
Rights Council will hold an emergency session next week to decry Syria's
military crackdown after enough states backed the initiative, diplomats said.
OVERWHELMING FORCE
Assad, who inherited power in
2000 from his father, clearly believes overwhelming force will extinguish calls
for the dismantling of the police state and the Assad clan's power monopoly,
free elections and an end to corruption.
For Assad to enact the
reforms he has been promising since he came to power, he would have to purge
his strongest allies and end the control of the security apparatus over the
state. Since they are the pillars of his power, that is unlikely.
In Tartous, a small city
south of Latakia with many Alawites, thousands marched on Monday to "affirm
national unity and support for the comprehensive reform programme led by
President Bashar al-Assad," SANA news agency said. Authorities have
previously organised such pro-Assad rallies.
The Syrian Revolution
Coordinating Union said troops also assaulted villages on the Houla plain north
of Homs on Monday, killing eight people as they raided houses and made arrests.
The organisation said four people were also killed in Homs.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Labib Nasir in Ramallah, Suleiman; al-Khalidi in
Amman and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
Source : Reuters
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