Shootings during Syria unrest

• US plans sanctions against Syria • Assad sends in tanks against protesters in Deraa • Nato warplanes hit Gaddafi compound 12.01pm Syria: While human rights campaigners warn of systematic killing in Deraa, the government’s mouthpiece, Sana, has a very different account of the army’s action . The state news agency says the army has been sent into quell “extremist terrorist groups” and that weapons have been seized. Other accounts suggest the protests have been peaceful. In response to the calls for help from the citizens of Daraa and their appeal to the Armed Forces as to intervene and put an end to the operations of killings, vandalism, and horrifying by extremist terrorist groups, some Army Units entered Sunday morning, April 25th 2011, to the City of Daraa to restore tranquility, security and normal life to the citizens, an official army source declared. The official source added that the Army Units, with the participation of security forces, are now chasing the said groups adding that the Army Units were able to arrest several members from the groups and confiscated huge quantities of weapons and ammunitions. 11.53am – Syria: We have our own reports of gunfire in Deraa now, this time from Wissam Tarif, executive director of the human rights group Insan, who fears a massacre is taking place in the city and elsewhere. Within the last half an hour he overheard gunfire during a phone call to Deraa. On reports of mutiny within the army , Tarif said: We have been hearing this for the last four or five weeks. We have interviewed some of the families of soldiers who have been shot. In three cases families suspect that the soldier was shot by security forces for disobeying orders [to] shoot civilians. There is strong evidence that this might be happening, the question is at what scale? The two units employed in Deraa are very loyal to the regime. He added: The few foreign media journalist in Syria are not allowed to leave Damascus. So the Syrian regime has managed to isolate the rest of the country from the world. What is happening in the country is systematic killing. We are talking about an army surrounding a group of civilians with tanks and opening live ammunition. The absurd [thing] about this is that the international community has so far just used strong words but no action whatsoever. I don’t understand why the UN security council hasn’t referred this to the international criminal courts. _ 11.47am – Syria: A resident in Deraa has told Reuters of gunfire and artillery in the city early today. People in Deraa say telephone lines, electricity and water supplies have all been cut. One resident, speaking by satellite phone to Reuters, said there had been intermittent gunfire during the night followed by artillery rounds and intense machinegun fire at around 7.30 (0430 GMT). “Sometimes you suddenly hear a burst of heavy machinegun fire coming in all directions as though to just scare people and terrify them,” he said. He said citizens were cut off not just from the outside world but from other parts of Deraa. “A brother doesn’t know what’s happening to his brother and we are still besieged,” he said. “They have cut off the city’s inner neighbourhoods from each other and army and snipers are still encircling almost every quarter.” But he said in the Sabeel neighbourhood a demonstration of around 300 youths was allowed to go ahead. Soldiers near to a tank deployed close by put down their light arms down to signify they would not shoot, he said. But residents believed that snipers were still active in the city. “They don’t want people to bury their dead,” he said, adding that with electricity cut off mosques could not announce the names of the dead. 11.20am – Libya: This video , posted on Facebook, was taken in Misrata and shows something of the destruction in the city. In the clip you can see rebel fighters clambering over Libyan government tanks and making their way through abandoned buildings. Other videos posted by Libia Ana on the social networking site show a small group of rebel fighters engaged in battle. 10.45am – Syria: This is video purporting to show a funeral in Duma ( 10.02am ) which turned into a demonstration. The video shows protesters scattering to the sound of gunfire and a person lying on the ground. _ 10.37am – Syria: According to the Press Association, the UK, France, Germany and Portugal are drawing up a draft statement on Syria which is being circulated at the UN, where Syria is to be discussed today. In his statement, Hague confirmed that Britain is working with others at the UN security council and the EU to send a “strong signal” to President Assad that he must halt violence against civilians. 10.26am – Libya: A Nato attack on a compound used by Gaddafi caused an “amazing scene” of destruction, our colleague, Harriet Sherwood, reports from Tripoli. “The building, which officials here claim was a civilian office building housing a library and archive, was completely flattened. Nato says it was a command and control centre – it was a legitimate target. The Libya government here are saying very explicitly it was an attempt to assassinate Gaddafi and an act of terrorism.” Meanwhile, fuel queues are mounting, Harriet says. “Huge petrol queues have sprung up again in Tripoli and surrounding towns. I went to a town quite close to the Tunisian border called Zuwarah. There were massive queues of cars, five or six cars deep, and maybe half a kilometre long. And this was for petrol stations that were closed. I spoke to two guys who said they had both been waiting for five days. If Libya is running out of fuel that is a huge symbolic blow… People are very attached to their cheap fuel. That would have a big impact on morale.” _ 10.18am – Syria: The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has issued a statement condemning the Syrian government crackdown. I condemn utterly any violence and killings perpetrated by the Syrian security forces against civilians who are expressing their views in peaceful protests. This violent repression must stop. President Assad should order his authorities to show restraint and to respond to the legitimate demands of his people with immediate and genuine reform, not with brutal repression. Words are not enough: the emergency law needs to be lifted in practice and the legitimate aspirations of the people met. 10.12am – Syria: There have been intriguing reports of defections among Syrian troops, a subject explored by Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian anti-government activist , on his Syrian Revolution Digest blog. In the morning of April 25, the city of Deraa was invaded from all four corners by units affiliated with the 4th Division, which falls under the direct leadership of Maher Al-Assad, the 5th Division, led by Muhammad Saleh Al-Rifai, with reinforcement from the 132 Battalion. Shortly thereafter, reports began trickling then pouring in speaking of a mutiny in the units affiliated with 5th Division and troops from these units standing up to and halting the advance of units from the 4th Division trying to reach Al-Omary Mosque in central Deraa. At first, many of us thought this might be a reference to a few more defections, as had transpired two weeks ago, but the reports continue to come from different sources and eyewitnesses that we managed to reach all through the day, leading us to believe that there might indeed be something worth monitoring here. If such a mutiny has indeed taken place so early in the game, then Assad’s military gambit seems to be backfiring, a development that could spark a wider division within the army in the next few hours and days, with all different sorts of implications for the protest movement, depending on how this internal conflict plays out. If, on the other hand, the reports turn out to be nothing more than exaggerations and wishful thinking, then the protest movement will still have a way to go before producing a significant impact on the structure and power base of the regime, and the challenge will be to keep on message and peaceful all the way through despite the mounting violence on part of the Assads. 10.02am – Syria: Suspected protesters have been rounded up in Duma, a town just to the north of the capital Damascus, eyewitnesses told a Human Rights Watch Syria researcher, Nadim Houry, who has been monitoring the crackdown from Beirut. He said: “An estimated 5,000 members of the security forces circled the town and went in knocking door-to-door arresting people. According to one family three members of their family were detained. They [the security forces] had a list of names that they were looking for. “They [the family] reported hearing gunfire at around 11am yesterday morning, but could not confirm casualty rates because they were hiding inside their apartment.” “The situation in Deraa is even more worrying but unfortunately the city remains completely cut off. We know that the Syrian army with tanks and the like entered the city on Monday morning. There are no available details at this stage of exactly what’s happening. All we have are short clips on YouTube showing the army shooting on the city.” The death toll has been increasing exponentially in Syria, Houry warned. “Between Friday and Saturday over 100 people were killed. The deployment of the army in full gear encircling a city and cutting it off, is very worrisome when you know the fatal history of the 1980s when the city of Hama paid a very heavy price for opposition to [president] Bashar al-Assad’s father.” _ 9.54am – Libya: Xan has just been back on the line to say that he’s hearing that Nato might have taken out some of the Libyan government artillery, which explains the lull in today’s shelling. So rebel frustration at Nato has eased considerably. 9.45am – Libya: Xan Rice, our colleague who is in Misrata on a surprisingly good line, says there has been a lull in the intense shelling of the only rebel-held city in western Libya. There was a lot less shelling last night and I haven’t heard any this morning so far, which is a big contrast since I arrived on Wednesday. The Gaddafi forces have been removed from the city centre and been pushed back beyond the highway, which is a big defeat for them. But residents have not rushed back to their homes as there still may be one or two Gaddafi soldiers hiding out, there is also the danger from unexploded ordinance and lots of homes have been destroyed. While people are pleased about Gaddafi forces being pushed out, there is not a sense that it’s over. The rebels managed to drive government forces out by cutting their supply lines and battering them day after day. The snipers could not be resupplied with food or ammunition. The tanks were taken out by RPGs or were blocked as rebels cut streets off with shipping containers. But there is much frustration with Nato. The rebels are saying: ‘They’re hitting us with artillery from 12 miles away, they must be in the open, why isn’t Nato attacking them.” 9.26am – Syria: It’s been noted by the Guardian’s Simon Tisdall among others that the US has been pulling its punches with Syria. As the Washington Post pointed out in its coverage, Obama has yet to declare that President Assad has lost the legitimacy to rule as he declared in the case of Gaddafi in Libya and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. The Post quotes an administration source as saying that policy will be “event driven” . The tipping point may have come in the weekend of violence, giving Obama the popular cover he has sought before calling for regime change in the Arab world. “We’re not there yet,” the administration official said. “This will be event-driven.” Obama’s reluctance is rooted in fear of what might replace Assad, a member of Syria’s minority Alawite sect who is running a Sunni-majority country with a prevalent, if repressed, Islamist strain in its society and politics. His secular Baath Party has been viewed by neighbors as a bulwark against Islamic extremism, making his government a linchpin in the region. Many U.S. allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, hope that Assad finds a way to remain in power. 9.00am: Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of unrest in the Middle East, where the Syrian government sent in tanks, snipers and thousands of troops to crush pro-democracy protesters in the southern city of Deraa. • Scores were reportedly killed and many more arrested in a widespread pre-emptive crackdown that was described by one human rights activist as a “savage war” against the pro-democracy movement . Deraa, which has been a centre of the rebellion, bore the brunt of the regime’s assault . Witnesses said at least 3,000 troops, backed by tanks and heavy weapons, entered the town in the early hours of Monday. Human rights organisations warned that this latest crackdown signalled an attempt by the regime to deliver a fatal blow to the pro-democracy movement. • The Obama administration condemned “the brutal violence used by the Syrian government”, describing it as deplorable . The US said it is pursuing a range of possible policy options, including targeted sanctions . • In Libya, Nato was accused of trying to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi after two air strikes in three days hit sites in or near the compound where he is believed to direct military strategy . At least two large missiles or bombs struck a multistorey office building in Bab al-Azizia, the sprawling complex in the centre of Tripoli, shortly after midnight yesterday . The Libyan government claimed three people were killed in the attack, although some officials there shortly after the strike said there had been no injuries. Syria Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Mark Tran Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 26, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.