By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
(Reuters) - Syrian tanks and navy ships shelled the main
Mediterranean port city of Latakia on Sunday, residents and rights groups said,
killing 26 people as President Bashar al-Assad's forces launched an offensive
by land and sea to crush protests against his rule.
Since the beginning of the
fasting month of Ramadan on August 1, Assad's forces have mounted operations
across the country to try to suppress protests demanding political freedom and
an end to 41 years of Assad family rule.
"I can see the silhouettes
of two grey vessels. They are firing their guns and the impact is landing on
al-Raml al-Filistini and al-Shaab neighborhoods," one witness told Reuters
by phone from Latakia, where tanks and armored vehicles were deployed three
months ago to crush dissent against Assad in mainly Sunni neighborhoods of the
mixed city.
"This is the most intense
attack on Latakia since the uprising. Anyone who sticks his head out of the
window risks being shot. They want to finish off the demonstrations for
good," he said.
Around 20,000 people have been
rallying daily to demand Assad's removal in different areas of the city after
Ramadan evening prayers, said the witness, a university student who did not
want to be further identified.
The Syrian National
Organization for Human Rights, headed by dissident Ammar al-Qurabi, said it had
the names of 26 civilians killed in Latakia, including a two-year-old girl, Ola
al-Jablawi. The deaths came after security forces shot dead 20 people during
nationwide marches on Friday.
Assad comes from Qerdaha, a
village in the Alawite Mountains 28 km (17 miles) southeast of Latakia, where
his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, is buried.
The Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said most of the casualties were shot by machineguns.
"After heavy firing,
troops and shabbiha (militiamen loyal to Assad) have reached the main square in
al-Raml al-Filistini, where the crowds have been demonstrating peacefully for
freedom and the downfall of the regime," said a statement by the opposition
group.
The Syrian Revolution
Coordinating Union said four more civilians were killed elsewhere in Syriaon
Sunday.
The official state news
agency denied that Latakia was shelled from the sea and said two police and
four unidentified armed men were killed when "order preservation forces
pursued armed men who were terrorizing residents.. and using machineguns and
explosives from rooftops and from behind barricades."
The assaults by Syrian
security forces are being met with increasing international condemnation.
United Nations deputy political affairs chief Oscar Fernandez-Taranco was
quoted by diplomats in New York on Wednesday as saying Assad's forces had
killed nearly 2,000 Syrian civilians since March -- 188 since July 31 and 87 on
August 8 alone.
The 57-member Organization of
Islamic Cooperation called on Saturday for an immediate halt to the military
campaign against protesters. U.S. President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabia's
King Abdullah repeated their calls for the military assaults to stop.
Obama spoke to British Prime
Minister David Cameron and the leaders called for an immediate end to attacks
by Assad's forces, the White House said.
It said Obama and Cameron
would "consult on further steps in the days ahead." Washington wants
Europe and China to consider sanctions on Syria's oil
industry, a key source of hard currency for the government.
SECTARIAN SPLIT
Syrian authorities have
expelled most independent media since the beginning of the uprising, making
verifying reports from inside the country difficult.
Residents and rights
campaigners said security forces and shabbiha continued house-to-house raids on
Sunday in the northwestern Idlib province on the border with Turkey,
the southern Hauran Plain, the Damascus suburbs and around the city of Hama,
which remains besieged by the military.
Hundreds were arrested, adding
to at least 12,000 who have been detained since the uprising and thousands of
people already held as political prisoners before it, they added.
Assad, from Syria's Alawite
minority, has repeatedly said Syria is facing a foreign conspiracy to divide
the country of 20 million. The authorities blame "armed terrorist
groups" for the bloodshed, and say 500 police and troops have been killed.
Assad's statements find little
support among the majority Sunni population of Latakia, where, as in other
towns and cities, the ruling minority has encouraged Alawites to move from
their traditional mountain regions, offering them cheap land and jobs in the
public sector and security apparatus.
Latakia port figures highly in
the Assad family domination of the economy,
with Bashar al-Assad's late uncle Jamil having been in virtual control of the
facility, and a new generation of family members and their friends taking over.
Demonstrations against Assad
during the five-month uprising have been biggest in Sunni neighborhoods of
Latakia, including Salibiya in the center of the city and Raml al-Filistini and
al-Shaab on the southern shore.
Troops have been besieging the
neighborhoods for months, residents say, with garbage going uncollected and
electricity often cut.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
Source : Reuters
Online Booking Hotel
EmpireMoney
No comments:
Post a Comment