SYRIAN WARSHIPS fired on poor waterfront districts of the port city of Latakia yesterday as tanks and troops took up positions in Sunni quarters of the city, opposition activists reported. The Ramel quarter, a hub of protest where a Palestinian refugee camp is sited, was among the targeted locations.
The Syrian state news agency, Sana, announced that “law enforcement” units were pursuing men armed with machine guns, grenades and explosive devices. Sana disputed charges of firing from gunships, although internet video showed ships off the Latakia coast. At least 21 people were killed, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A curfew has been imposed and telephone lines and internet connections are said to have been cut.
The observatory said large numbers of soldiers also swept into the Saqba and Hamriya districts of Damascus.
In a joint statement, Syrian rights groups urged the government to free Abdel Karim Ribawi, head of the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights, who was arrested in Damascus last Thursday. They argued that his detention “represents a violation of the international commitments undertaken by Syria.
“Security forces are continuing mass arrests, in violation of the law, human rights and democratic freedoms, denying the rights of opposition figures and peaceful demonstrators.”
On Saturday, two people reportedly died when soldiers and armoured personnel carriers entered Latakia in strength. The observatory said security forces arrested “more than 70 people” in one district. Families fled the city.
Local co-ordinating committees reported the army also moved into the town of Qusair in Homs province and a town on the Lebanese border. The observatory holds that 2,150 people have been confirmed dead since the rebellion began: 1,744 civilians and 406 security personnel.
Latakia, a city of 600,000 with a mixed population, has been a hotbed of the five-month revolt and had endured previous military operations. But, according to a resident, the area was calm until last Friday, when 10,000 people were said to have taken to the streets and called for the government to be ousted.
The Sunni community lives alongside minority Christians and Turkomen in the Latakia metropolitan area, surrounded by villages inhabited by heterodox Shia Alawites, the sect of president Bashar al-Assad whose family comes from the mountainous hinterland. Since the Latakia governorate is the sole province with an Alawite majority, this region is of supreme importance to the regime.
Meanwhile, US president Barack Obama discussed the situation in Syria by phone with Saudi King Abdullah and British prime minister David Cameron.
President Obama and the king “expressed their shared, deep concerns” about the crackdown on protesters and agreed that it must end “immediately”, a White House statement said.
Mr Obama and Mr Cameron agreed that “the Syrian people’s legitimate demands for a transition to democracy should be met”.
Canada said it was stepping up economic sanctions against Syria while the Saudi-sponsored Organisation of Islamic Conference urged Damascus to exercise restraint and offered to mediate talks between the government and the opposition, which has no defined leadership.
The UN Security Council is set to meet on Thursday to consider action against the Syrian government. So far, the council has adopted a presidential statement condemning violence against the protesters.
