Syrian forces backed by tanks and helicopters stormed the strategic town of Rastan in Homs
Syria forces storm main town, fight defectors
By REUTERS
09/27/2011 07:34
AMMAN
- Syrian forces backed by tanks and helicopters stormed a strategic
town on Tuesday after fighting with army defectors, in a major operation
to subdue pro-democracy protests in the center of the country,
residents said.
Tens of tanks and armored vehicles entered
Rastan, a town of 40,000 on the highway to Turkey near the city of Homs,
after pounding it overnight with heavy machine guns from tanks and
attack helicopters following a two-day siege, they said.
Syria accuses West of sowing 'total chaos'
27-Sep-11, 12:09 PM | Agence France-Presse
DAMASCUS -- Syria denounced international intervention and
accused the West of trying to unleash "total chaos," as rights activists
said troops on Monday shot dead four soldiers who had tried to desert.
China meanwhile expressed its concern at the wider implications of
the violence in Syria, even as the United States pressed Beijing, a
veto-wielding member of the Security Council, to back stronger UN action
against Damascus.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the West wanted chaos that
will lead to the break-up of the country. Anti-regime protests were
also a "pretext for foreign interventions," he said at the UN General
Assembly in New York.
Foreign governments were trying to undermine co-existence between Syria's different religious groups, he added.
"How can we otherwise explain media provocations, financing and arming religious extremism?" he said.
"What purpose could this serve other than total chaos that would
dismember Syria -- and consequently adversely affect its neighbors?"
Rejecting the accusations, Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called for UN Security Council action.
"The courageous men and women in Syria deserve a clear signal of our
solidarity," Westerwelle told the UN assembly, condemning the "brutal
force" used by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
Damascus does not accept the existence of popular opposition to the
authorities, instead blaming "armed gangs" and "terrorists" for trying
to sow chaos.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the death of the soldiers.
"Four soldiers in Maar Shamsa in (northwestern) Idlib were shot dead
while trying to flee the Wadi Deif military camp," it said. The group
also reported gunfire, arrests, and killings.
In New York, China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi expressed Beijing's concern over the dragging crisis.
The international community, he said, should "handle the Syrian issue
in a prudent way so as to prevent further turbulence in Syria and its
repercussions on regional peace."
And in a call to opposition demonstrators as well as Assad's forces,
Yang said "we hope that parties in Syria will exercise restraint, avoid
any form of violence or more bloodshed and conflict, and act quickly to
ease tension."
China has joined Russia in leading opposition to UN sanctions against
the Assad government in Syria, where the United Nations says that more
than 2,700 people have been killed since March.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China to back strong UN
action on Syria when she met Yang just before his speech, a senior US
official said.
The Britain-based Observatory reported soaring tensions in central Homs province, a hub of protests against the Assad regime.
"The army has deployed in the villages of the Qusseir region (south
of Homs), where two unidentified bodies were found in the Assi river."
"There are also mutilated bodies at the National Hospital" in
Qusseir, where 12 people were killed and 15 were reported missing in
military operations on Saturday, it said.
North of Homs, "many security checkpoints have been set up on the
roads leading to Rastan, where heavy machine-gun fire was heard this
morning."
In northwestern Idlib province, near the Turkish border, security
forces stormed villages, setting up roadblocks and arresting 17 people.
The Observatory also said that in the rebel city of Hama, "a civilian
died and three others were wounded by gunfire on Sunday night on the
Mhardeh-Hilfaya road."
In the southern city of Dael, in Daraa province, where the first
protests ignited in mid-March, there was intense gunfire overnight after
the city council building was set on fire, which residents blamed on
pro-regime militias.
The state-run SANA news agency reported the seizure of "arms and
ammunition" in a house in the Daraa village of Nassib near the Jordanian
border, and the discovery of a carload of "Israeli arms and explosives
charges in Homs."
SANA also reported the funeral of four soldiers and security officers, as well as that of a doctor who had been killed in Homs.
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
BBC MUNDO RADIO
Post a Comment
Una mujer sostiente un cartel contra Evo Morales en La Paz. | Reuters
La Policía disolvió la marcha este domingo. | Efe
Manifestantes protestan frente a la Policía en el aeropuerto de Rurrenabaque este lunes. | AP
