Perilous
Times
Syrian army kills about 140 in crackdown
August 1, 2011 - 12:19PM
AFP
Syrian forces have killed nearly 140 people including at least 100
when the army stormed the flashpoint protest city of Hama,
activists say, prompting calls for emergency Security Council
talks.
Activists said it was one of the deadliest days in Syria since
demonstrators first took to the streets on March 15 demanding
democratic reforms before turning their wrath on the regime and
calling for its removal.
As reports of Sunday's pre-Ramadan crackdown on Hama unfurled, US
President Barack Obama and European leaders condemned the
crackdown as Germany and Italy called for an urgent meeting of the
UN Security Council.
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A meeting could be held on Monday. But the move is likely to
reopen bitter divisions within the Security Council, which has not
yet been able to agree even a statement on President Bashar
al-Assad's crackdown against opponents.
"It is one of the deadliest days" since the protests erupted, said
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights.
Rights activists said at least 136 people were killed across Syria
and expected the toll to rise, while scores were wounded.
"One hundred civilians were killed on Sunday in Hama by gunfire
from security forces who accompanied the army as it stormed the
city," said Abdel Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian League for the
Defence of Human Rights.
Rihawi said five other people were killed in the central city of
Homs and three more in the northwestern province of Idlib when
security forces opened fire on protesters who rallied in support
of Hama.
The head of the National Organisation for Human Rights, Ammar
Qorabi, put the Hama death toll at 95. The Observatory's Abdel
Rahman said at least 47 people were killed in and around the
central city.
"The number of those wounded is huge and hospitals cannot cope,
particularly because we lack the adequate equipment," he added,
quoting a Hama hospital source.
Abdel Rahman said the Hama crackdown came after more than 500,000
people rallied in the city on Friday after Muslim prayers during
which a cleric told worshippers "the regime must go".