Clashes with Syrian military leave 10 protesters dead

SYRIAN TROOPS backed by tanks yesterday fought defectors in the largest engagement since unrest erupted in mid-March, opposition activists said.

Units from the 12th Armoured Brigade based at Isra, north of the Jordanian frontier in Deraa Province, conducted sweeps in the village of Busra al-Harir and al-Lujah. This is a broad zone of rocky hills and caves where deserters have taken refuge and from where they have mounted attacks on convoys supplying the military bases in the south. Three vehicles belonging to loyalist forces were reportedly set alight.

Before dawn in the northwestern town of Kafr Takharim, two army vehicles were set on fire, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated.

Fearing civil war, the Syrian National Council has called on Col Riad al-Assad, commander of the defectors’ “Free Syrian Army” to halt offensive operations against the armed forces and confine itself to protecting civilian protesters.

The council has said the uprising should remain “peaceful”. According to opposition spokesmen, the government has ordered anti-regime elements in Homs to halt demonstrations, hand in weapons and surrender defectors by tonight.

At least 10 people were reported killed when troops fired on demonstrators in Hama and Homs in central Syria, Idlib in the north and Deraa in the south.

In response to a general strike called by the opposition, security officers were said to have warned shopkeepers to open their stores or face punishment. The local co-ordination committees which lead domestic protests have called for strikes and sit-ins.

Ashraf al-Moqdad, an opposition spokesman, said: “The strike is a really desperate action, a desperate cry from the Syrian people, the last civilian action we could do. We’ve been demonstrating for nine months. Thousands of us have been murdered . . . We’ve been waiting for real concrete action from the international community . . . What else can we do?”

Canadian Suncor Energy has suspended operations with Syria’s General Petroleum Corporation in line with sanctions imposed by the EU. Suncor follows oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total.