Clashes across Syria despite UN call for ceasefire

DESPITE THE call by the UN Security Council for a ceasefire and talks between the Syrian government and the opposition, troops and rebels yesterday engaged in cross-country skirmishes.

Syrian army tanks reportedly shelled the Arbaeen quarter in Hama following clashes between soldiers and army defectors.

Ten were said to have been killed when gunfire struck a bus carrying women and children fleeing fighting in the northwestern province of Idlib, troops swept for dissidents in the city of Deir-Zor in the east, and rebels ambushed soldiers in Deraa in the south. Activists put the daily death toll at 33.

The external opposition Syrian National Council dismissed the UN statement while the Muslim Brotherhood called for rebels to be armed.

In preparation for the next phase of the conflict – said to be guerrilla warfare – the rebel Free Syrian Army has established a military council to co-ordinate operations in the Damascus area, with the object of taking the conflict to the capital. The decision to form such a council was announced on a video posted on the internet by colonel Khaled Muhammad al-Hammoud, an army defector.

The UN statement, backed by Russia and China, supports the peace plan advanced by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who is expected to return to Damascus.

The security council has called on the government and opposition to “work towards a peaceful settlement of the . . . crisis and to implement fully and immediately [Mr Annan’s] . . . proposal.”

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said the council sent a “clear” message when it laid down “unmistakable terms” for a halt to the conflict and an end to human rights violations in Syria.

“All the violence must stop,” he said. There should be an “inclusive political negotiation” for a solution that will meet the aspirations of the Syrian people.” Syria’s state news agency Sana hailed the statement, watered down to meet Russian and Chinese concerns, arguing that the “document does not contain any ultimatums, threats or assertions [as to] who is guilty” for the violence.

Following this week’s publication of a letter condemning abuses, torture and killings by rebels, Human Rights Watch again focused on government forces. The rights watchdog said that security forces are now committing “serious abuses” in Qusair, a town near the Lebanese border.

“Following their bloody siege of Homs, the Assad forces are applying their same brutal methods in Qusair,” said the organisation’s regional director Sarah Leah Whitson. She urged Russia to stop supplying arms to the Syrian government or “risk becoming . . . implicated in human rights violations”. While the UN says some 8,500 civilians have died during the past year, Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi said 3,000 members of the security forces have been killed. Damascus blames the crisis on foreign-inspired “terrorists”.

The European Union is set to impose travel and shopping bans on President Bashar al-Assad’s British-born wife Asma and sanctions on other members of his entourage.