Syrian tanks storm town of Hama

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July 31, 2011
At least 17 civilians have reportedly been killed and dozens of others wounded after Syrian tanks stormed the city of Hama, shooting indiscriminately, residents said.

The attack on Sunday morning came nearly a month after Syrian forces besieged the city, following some of the largest demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad's rule since protests began in March, the Reuters news agency reported.

One of the residents, a doctor who did not want to be further identified for fear of arrest, told Reuters that the tanks were attacking from four different direction and "firing randomly".

"They are firing their heavy machine guns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants," he said by phone, the sound of machine gun fire crackling in the background.

He said that there were 51 people wounded at Badr hospital alone, which was running short of blood for transfusions. He said tanks had surrounded another main hospital, al-Horani.

Another resident said snipers had climbed onto the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison, and that electricity had been cut in eastern neighbourhoods.

Assad is attempting to crush an uprising against his 11-year rule that broke out in March, inspired by "Arab Spring" revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, and has spread across the country.

Syrian authorities have expelled most independent journalists, making it difficult to verify reports of fighting.

Hama was the scene of a massacre in 1982 when Assad's father, the late president Hafez al-Assad, sent his troops to crush an Islamist-led uprising, razing whole neighbourhoods and killing up to 30,000 people in the bloodiest episode of Syria's modern history.

International concern

Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria, visited the city earlier this month in a gesture of international support for what he described as peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, and once a staunch ally of Assad, said in May that "we do not want to see another Hama massacre", and warned the 45-year-old president that it would be hard to contain the consequences if it were repeated.

The Syrian leadership blames "armed terrorist groups" for most killings during the revolt, saying that more than 500 soldiers and security personnel have been killed.

An activist group, Avaaz, said in a report last week that Syrian security forces had killed 1,634 people in the course of their crackdown, while at least 2,918 had disappeared.

Another 26,000 had been arrested, many of whom were beaten and tortured,and 12,617 remained in detention, it said.

Syria-based rights activist Mustafa Osso said the regime had detained more than 4,000 people in raids over the past week as it tries to contain the situation.

"The regime is trying to suppress the uprising because it knows that the opposition will try to hold protests between sunset and sunrise," Osso said.

He called the week of raids the "strongest security campaign since the uprising began".

'Intense shooting'

Meanwhile, Syrian forces killed at least six civilians during shelling in the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor late on Saturday, as government forces intensified a pre-Ramadan crackdown against protests.

Deir ez-Zor, the capital of a province that carries the same name, is an oil hub but also one of the country's poorest regions.

"More tank columns are heading to town. By using heavy weapons, security forces are waging war against their own people," the Syrian Revolution Co-ordination Union grassroots activists' group said.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, the director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said about 60 vehicles filled with reinforcements from the northern city of Raqqah reached Deir ez-Zor after noon.

"Intense shooting could be heard in the western parts of the city," he told The Associated Press news agency by telephone.

"Residents have placed barriers in the streets in order to obstruct advancing troops."

The tribal region, which borders Iraq, has been witnessing intense protests, calling for the downfall of Assad's regime.

The Deir ez-Zor raid followed a night-time attack by government forces on the capital, Damascus, and the eastern city of al-Boukamal on the border with Iraq.

Activists have predicted that demonstrations will escalate during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Monday, as both sides try to tip the balance in the more than four-month uprising.

Since the uprising against Assad's regime began, Fridays have witnessed the most intense protests as Muslims leave mosques after the weekly prayers and march in the streets.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the head of the United Nations that military and police operations against anti-government protesters have stopped, according to a statement released by the Secretary-General's office.

Details of the conversation were released late Wednesday, shortly before the U.N. Security Council was to be briefed Thursday on the Syrian government crackdown against protesters calling for al-Assad's ouster.

"President Assad said that the military and police operations had stopped," the statement said.

It is unclear when the conversation between al-Assad and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took place, though the statement was released after Syria's state-run media reported security forces pulled out of the hard-hit western port city of Latakia and the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.

Earlier Wednesday, opposition groups claimed at least 10 people were killed in military crackdowns in the flashpoint cities of Latakia, Homs and Idlib. They also said Syrian forces had withdrawn to the outskirts of some cities, though were still in the streets of one hard-hit Latakia neighborhood.

During the conversation, Ban reiterated calls for an independent investigation into opposition claims of killings by Syrian forces, the statement said. He also called on the Syrian government to cooperate with the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights.

"The Secretary-General expressed alarm at the latest reports of continued widespread violations of human rights and excessive use of force by Syrian security forces against civilians across Syria," the statement said.

Ban specifically pointed to the Ramel district of Latakia, where opposition groups said a military offensive began over the weekend.

The U.N. statement did not detail whether al-Assad responded to Ban's specific requests.

Despite claims by state-run Syrian Arab News Agency that troops withdrew from the city, the opposition group Local Coordination Committees of Syria told CNN on Wednesday that troops were still in the Ramel district.

CNN cannot independently confirm the claims by either side as the Syrian government has refused to allow international journalists to enter the country. The opposition claims are based on reports from opposition organizers, eyewitnesses and medical professional, who will speak only on condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety.

The LCC said Wednesday that 10 people were killed, eight in Homs, one in Latakia and one in Idlib.

Figures from different opposition groups differed slightly. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of dead in Homs at nine; Avaaz reported four Palestinians killed in Latakia, five people killed in Homs and two in Idlib.

Meanwhile, the United Nations on Wednesday announced the temporary withdrawal of some staff members amid the violence in Syria.

The United Nations is relocating 26 nonessential international staff members and their families from Syria, said Michael Williams, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon.

He said he had been concerned over the conflict in Latakia.

There are normally more than 160 international U.N. staffers in Syria, with many of them based in Damascus, a spokesman said. The largest U.N. agency in Syria was the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, with 61.

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council was to be briefed by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay; Valerie Amos, under-secretary-general of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief efforts; and a U.N. political officer.

The meeting is not expected to result in issuance of a statement or adoption of a resolution; its purpose is to get the 15-member council closer to a decision on how to proceed.

The U.N. Human Rights Council is also focused on the unrest. It plans to hold a special session Monday on Syria, according to Cedric Sepe, press officer at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He said member states have called for the session, in Geneva, Switzerland. The session may extend into Tuesday, he said.

These moves reflect international anxiety and outrage among world powers, including the United States, and among Syria's neighbors, including Jordan and Turkey, over the crackdown.

Tunisia has recalled its ambassador to Syria for "consultations," the Tunisian news agency said Wednesday, citing an "authorized" Foreign Ministry source.

Last week, Saudi King Abdullah called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and recalled the Saudi ambassador from Damascus.

Bahrain and Kuwait also have recalled their ambassadors from Syria and called on the al-Assad regime to end crackdowns.

While the government has maintained that it is targeting "armed groups" and "terrorists" during the five-month-long unrest, witnesses and opposition activists say the government has been brutally cracking down on civilians amid calls for al-Assad's ouster.

In Washington, the U.S. government announced that it was placing travel restrictions on the Syrian ambassador to match those imposed last month by Syria on the U.S. ambassador. The Syrian ambassador must seek State Department approval prior to any U.S. travel outside the core Washington area.

The LCC has said that at least 2,545 people have died since the protests began. The vast majority was civilians, and 391 were security personnel, the group said.

CNN cannot independently confirm the claim.

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Arrests and beatings as information war continues
Wednesday 17 August 2011

Reporters Without Borders continues to register cases of violence and arbitrary arrests in which the victims are anyone trying to provide information about what is happening in Syria. It also condemns the journalist Eyad Shorbaji’s trial, which is due to begin today in Damascus. The reason for his arrest and the charges are still unknown.

“We fear that Bashar Al-Assad’s regime is locked into a repressive frenzy that has reached a point of no return,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Isolated internationally, especially since the withdrawal of many Arab ambassadors and the increase in international community pressure, the authorities persist in censoring any discourse different from their own, jailing netizens and journalists who have witnessed violence against protesters.

“We would still like to convince the authorities that truth cannot be suppressed and that the policies they have chosen will only lead down a blind alley. Respect for free expression and media freedom is the only possible way forward.”

In one of the latest cases, members of the security forces attacked London-based journalist Moussa Al-Omar’s family home in Damascus on 11 August. Omar has interviewed various Syrian opposition figures for the programme he hosts for UK-based Al-Hiwar TV. The attack is typical of the intimidatory methods that Syria’s diplomats and security services use with government opponents living abroad.

Reporters Without Borders has also learned that Myriam Haddad, a woman reporter for the magazine Mouqarabat, was kidnapped from Havana Café, in the centre of the capital, on 11 August. Intelligence officials arrested the journalist Sami Al-Halabi on 11 August in the southern city of Suwayda after giving him a severe beating. And Jehad Jamal, a blogger also known by the pen-name of Milan who has had several spells in prison, was jailed again for unknown reasons on 4 August.

Reporters Without Borders is also extremely concerned about four journalists who were abducted by security agents on the morning of 4 August from a café in the southern Damascus suburb of Jaramana. They are Ebaa Monzer, a business reporter for the newspaper Baladna, Omar Al-Assad, who works for Al-Jazeera and the newspapers As-Safir and Al-Hayat and who was already arrested at the start of the protests, and the bloggers Rudy Othman and Asim Hamsho.

Monzer, a woman, may have been released but Reporters Without Borders has had no news of the other three aside except that Hamsho was reportedly tortured at intelligence headquarters in the northern district of Maysat after his arrest. There is also still no news of Hanadi Zahlout, a freelance journalist who has been missing since 25 July.

Reporters Without Borders notes that Omar Koush, a writer and journalist who had been held since 2 May, was finally released on 6 August. But seven other journalists and bloggers are still detained (http://en.rsf.org/saudi-arabia-arab...), in addition to those named above.

With authorities cracking down so hard on journalists, new technologies offer the only way of providing an alternative to the regime’s propaganda. But netizens are also a priority target for the intelligence services.

Abd Qabani, for example, was arrested in the capital on 8 August, and Ahmed Samir Naji went missing as he was driving to work the same day. The blogger and activist Fadi Zeidan was arrested for covering a demonstration in the central Damascus district of Sha’laan on 4 August and was held for two days.

The netizen Ammar Sa’ib was arrest in Qasaa, a district east of the capital, on 1 August in still unknown circumstances.

Comment: Let's remember when we read news that the price many local and/or international journalists pay to guarantee a minimum level of free press in countries under dictatorship is extremely high not only for themselves but also for their families. [/color]