Perilous
Times
Armored Syrian forces storm towns near Turkey border
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis | Reuters
AMMAN (Reuters) - Dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers stormed
towns and villages near Syria's northwest border with Turkey on
Wednesday, stepping up President Bashar al-Assad's efforts to
crush popular unrest and pursue army defectors, local activists
said.
At least four villagers were killed by security forces and armed
men loyal to Assad who fired machineguns randomly as they swept
into at least 10 villages and towns in Jabal al-Zawiya from a
nearby highway, after blocking access to the region and cutting
off communications, the activists said.
"This is an initial death toll. Communication with the region is
very difficult," one activist said.
A protest demanding the removal of Assad broke out nevertheless in
al-Janoudiya, a village in Jabal al-Zawiya, and a boy among the
marchers was killed by troops who fired at the crowd, the Syrian
Revolution General Commission, a grassroots activists'
organisation, said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in
Britain, said at least 100 people were arrested in the campaign,
including eight members of the family of Colonel Riyad al-Asa'ad,
a defector, in collective punishment that has been applied
regularly against the families of high ranking deserters and their
hometowns.
Assad faces Western outrage and tougher rhetoric from Turkey but
no U.N. Security Council action over a ferocious military campaign
to stop a six-month uprising demanding political freedoms and an
end to his family's autocratic rule.
Support from Russia and China, which have oil concessions in Syria
and want to limit the spread of Western influence in the Middle
East, have helped frustrate a Western-led U.N. resolution for
sanctions on Assad and the ruling hierarchy.
International rights groups, Western and Arab diplomats and local
activists cite many more mass arrests in the last two weeks,
including of wounded protesters in hospitals, more assassinations
of street protest leaders, as well as more activists being
reported tortured to death in prison.
Syrian authorities rarely comment on specific killings, but they
have denied reports of suspected torture in the past and said
arrests are only made in accordance with the constitution.
NORTHWEST ASSAULT, TURKEY
In the northwest, the assault in Jabal al-Zawiya followed a major
sweep this week on al-Ghab Plain, farmland to its south that has
seen regular protests and serves as a supply line for army
deserters.
At least 26 villagers have been killed by troops in the last 72
hours in al-Ghab, local activists said.
Most of the deserters, who are estimated to number in the
hundreds, are from the Sunni Muslim rank and file, which is
dominated by an officer corps from Syria's minority Alawite sect,
to which Assad and the ruling hierarchy belong.
Lacking an organised command and access to weapons to match
Assad's core forces, many of the deserters have tried to flee to
Turkey, residents and local activists say.
Turkey has kept the border open with Syria and has not stopped
thousands of refugees who have crossed into its territory to
escape the intensifying military assaults on numerous villages and
towns in the northwest.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has urged Assad repeatedly
to end his crackdown on dissent but stopped short of echoing the
United States and European Union in calling for Assad's
resignation.
The EU has imposed an embargo on Syria's oil sector, possibly
cutting off a major source of cash for Assad.
Rights campaigners said military attacks have killed hundreds of
civilians in the last few weeks.
An adviser to Assad, on a visit to Moscow this week, said reports
of mass civilian killings have been exaggerated by the media and
that the only casualties were 700 soldiers and policemen killed by
"terrorist groups" and a similar number of what she described as
mutineers.
Arab and international rights groups said on Wednesday the Arab
League should suspend Syria's membership.
A statement by 176 groups, including New York-based Human Rights
Watch, said the Arab League should support UN Security Council
travel bans and freezing of assets, as well as enforce its own
arms embargo.
"Citizens of the Arab world share the desire to see an end to the
bloodshed in Syria and to see the Arab League act as the leading
regional organization to protect and uphold the common values of
the Arab world at this critical and historical moment," they said
in a letter to Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby.
(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)