Heavy gunfire in central, north Syria; 11 killed

BEIRUT — Syrian security forces unleashed a barrage of gunfire Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and leaving thousands cowering in their homes as President Bashar Assad's troops kept up the government's assault on a 6-month-old uprising, activists and witnesses said.

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Nine of the dead were in Homs, a hotbed of opposition to Assad's autocratic regime. Two others were shot dead during raids in Sarameen, in northern Syria.

In a step the opposition says shows the regime is intractable, a planned visit by the Arab League secretary general Wednesday to push Assad to make major concessions to defuse the crisis was called off at the last minute at the government's request.

Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed Ben Heli told reporters in Egypt that Elaraby will now visit Damascus on Saturday. He said the decision was made in a phone call between Elaraby and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

For days, security forces have been pursuing activists and anti-government protesters in Homs, part of a ferocious crackdown on the most serious challenge to the 40-year Assad dynasty. The U.N. says more than 2,200 people have died in nearly six months of protests.

"All through the night, there was shooting. The gunfire didn't stop," a resident of the city told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday. "I can't tell exactly what is going on because it's dangerous to go out."

He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, said security forces simultaneously stormed several districts in the old part of the city, including the Bab Dreib, Bab Houd and the Bayada neighborhoods. Nine people were confirmed dead in ongoing shooting in those areas, the LCC said.

The London-based Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists across the country, said 10 were killed.

Homs, Syria's third-largest city, has seen some of the largest anti-regime protests in Syria over the past months, despite repeated crackdowns.

On Tuesday, security forces opened fire from a checkpoint in Rastan, just north of Homs, killing two people, including a 15-year-old boy, activists said. They said five unidentified corpses, including that of a woman, also were found dumped around the city center.

Mobile telephones, land lines and Internet connections in some parts of Homs were cut off Wednesday. Many people were staying home because of roads blocked by security forces. Others were too scared to leave.

State-run news agency SANA said a "terrorist group" kidnapped two Baath party officials in Rastan Wednesday. Authorities last week reported the kidnapping of the attorney general of the central city of Hama, Adnan Bakkour. Two days later, he appeared in a video announcing he had defected from the regime. Activists say he is now safely out of Syria. But authorities insist he was being kept against his will by gunmen and say they are searching for him.

Idilbi said there were reports of army defections in Homs Wednesday, saying fierce fighting took place between factions of soldiers. There have been credible reports of scattered, mostly low-level army defections in the past months, although it is difficult to gauge the extent.

An amateur video posted online by activists in Rastan showed a group of alleged army defectors in military uniforms saluting crowds calling for the regime's downfall from a balcony.

A particularly disturbing video making the rounds on social networking sites Wednesday showed a group of men in military uniform repeatedly shooting a man as he lay bleeding and motionless on the ground. The video, purportedly in Homs, says the men in uniform are pro-Assad thugs, not soldiers.

Syria has sealed the country off from foreign journalists and most international observers, insisting that foreigners are meddling, making it difficult to independently verify information coming out of the country. The government's violent crackdown has led to sharp international criticism and sanctions aimed at isolating the regime, including a ban on the import of Syrian oil, a mainstay of the regime.

Arab League officials in Egypt had said Secretary General Nabil Elaraby would have presented a plan under which Assad would immediately cease all military operations, release all political prisoners, begin dialogue and announce his intention to form a national unity government and hold pluralistic presidential elections by the end of his term in 2014.

The Local Coordination Committees, one of the main Syrian opposition activist groups, said the initiative provided "a good basis that can be built upon" as a way out of the crisis.

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AP writer Sarah El-Deeb contributed to this report from Cairo, Egypt.

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Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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US derides Syria for blaming terrorists

BEIRUT — The U.S. Embassy in Syria said Tuesday that President Bashar Assad is not fooling anyone by blaming terrorists and thugs for the unrest in his country as security forces try to crush the uprising by unleashing a brutal crackdown that has killed more than 2,200 people in nearly six months.

In comments posted on the embassy's Facebook page, U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford said it was clear Assad's regime has no capacity for reform.

"Peaceful protesters are not 'terrorists,' and after all the evidence accumulated over the past six months, no one except the Syrian government and its supporters believes that the peaceful protesters here are," he wrote.

Ford's comments came the same day that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon leveled some of his strongest criticism yet at the Syrian regime, saying Assad must take "bold and decisive measures before it's too late."

The statements were a reflection of the exasperation felt by the international community at the relentless crackdown that the U.N. says has killed 2,200 people since March, when the Syrian uprising began.

Nearly six months on, the unrest has descended into a bloody stalemate with neither side willing to back down. Assad has sealed the country from foreign journalists and most international observers, insisting that foreigners are meddling in his country and serving an outside conspiracy to destabilize the nation.

Ban had won a pledge from Assad in a phone call in mid-August to end the violence, but the killings continued.

Ford acknowledged that security forces have been killed. The regime estimates around 400 have died.

"But the number of security service members killed is far, far lower than the number of unarmed civilians killed," he said. "No one in the international community accepts the justification from the Syrian government that those security service members' deaths justify the daily killings, beatings, extrajudicial detentions, torture and harassment of unarmed civilian protesters."

On Tuesday, security forces opened fire from a checkpoint near the restive central city of Homs, killing two people, including a 15-year-old boy, activists said. They also said five unidentified corpses, including that of a woman, also were found dumped around the city center.

A longtime political activist and resident of Homs said it was not clear if the killings had sectarian motives. "The situation is very tense, people are very scared," he told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

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The discovery in July of three corpses with their eyes gouged set off a sectarian killing spree that left 30 people dead. The opposition has long accused the president's minority Alawite regime of trying to stir up trouble among the Sunni majority to blunt the growing enthusiasm for the uprising.

The government's violent crackdown has led to broad international sanctions aimed at isolating the regime, including a ban on the import of Syrian oil, a mainstay of the Syrian regime. France said Tuesday the European countries are working on a new set of economic sanctions for Syria in a bid to end the violent crackdown on the uprising there.

While Ban stopped short of calling for military intervention Tuesday, he said it is time for U.N. member nations to unite and take "coherent measures."

The uprising in Syria has posed the most serious challenge to the Assad family's 40-year ruling dynasty in Syria but it has yet to bring out the middle- and upper-middle classes in Damascus and Aleppo, the two economic powerhouses, although protests have been building.

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Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Syria opposition tries to unite, divisions remain (AP)

BEIRUT – Syria's fragmented opposition took steps toward forming a national council Tuesday, but serious divisions and mistrust among the members prevented them from presenting a unified front against President Bashar Assad's regime more than five months into the country's uprising, participants said.

Syria's opposition, fragmented by years of sectarian and ideological tensions, has made unprecedented gains against the regime, but there is no clear leadership or platform beyond the demands for more freedom and for Assad to step down.

With Assad's forces cracking down on the protests, the overall death toll has reached 2,200, the United Nations said this week.

A group of opposition members have been meeting in neighboring Turkey in recent days, but participants gave conflicting reports about exactly what emerged. Obeida al-Nahhas told The Associated Press that a council had been formed but the details were still being completed; others said there was no council to speak of yet.

"People are just beginning to form an opposition and so they are treading carefully. This is understandable," said Mahmud Osman, an opposition member at the meeting in Turkey. "We don't claim to represent the whole of Syria. But we are talking to everyone and we are trying to build a consensus."

The unrest in Syria shows no sign of abating, with both sides of the conflict energized. Protesters pour into the streets every Friday, defying the near-certain barrage of shelling and sniper fire. But the regime is strong as well and in no imminent danger of collapse, setting the stage for what could be a drawn-out and bloody stalemate.

Assad has shrugged off broad international condemnation and calls for him to step down, insisting that armed gangs and thugs are driving the violence, not true reform-seekers.

Activists said Tuesday that Syrian security forces killed at least seven people in the central city of Homs on Monday, soon after a U.N. humanitarian team left the area because the security situation was deteriorating.

Amateur videos posted online by activists showed crowds of people crowding around cars with the blue U.N. flag, flashing banners that read: "We will never stop until we get our freedom."

The protesters chanted for freedom and the downfall of the Assad regime.

Syria has banned foreign media and severely restricted local coverage, making it nearly impossible to confirm events on the ground.

Syria had granted the U.N. team permission to visit some areas to assess humanitarian needs, but activists and a Western diplomat have accused the regime of trying to scrub away signs of the crackdown.

Residents and activists said it was quiet until the team left, after which troops opened fire on an anti-government protest, killing four. Gunmen also killed three others elsewhere in Homs, which has become a hotbed of dissent against Assad, human rights groups said.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said she was "shocked" at reports of protesters being killed and injured after the U.N. visit and called on Syrian authorities "to ensure that people are allowed to protest peacefully and in safety."

The U.N.'s top human rights body voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to demand that Syria end its crackdown and cooperate with an international probe into possible crimes against humanity.

European nations and the United States, meanwhile, circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution Tuesday seeking an arms embargo and other sanctions aimed at stopping the crackdown. But they faced immediate opposition from veto-wielding Russia, whose ambassadorr said it was not the right time for sanctions.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said Ambassador Robert Ford visited the country's south, while denying that he received prior permission from the Syrian government. An official at the U.S. Embassy described it as a "short and routine" trip to the village of Jassem near the southern city of Daraa. The area has been witnessing large anti-government protests.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Ford informed the Syrian government after the visit and explained that he did not ask for permission in advance "because they haven't been approving any visits, by anybody, anywhere." She said he stayed only four hours in order not to "make life difficult" for the residents.

A trip last month by the U.S. and French ambassadors to the central city of Hama to express support for protesters drew swift condemnation from the Syrian government, which said the unauthorized visits were proof that Washington was inciting violence in the Arab nation.

The Syrian foreign minister then warned both ambassadors not to travel outside the capital without permission.

The Local Coordination Committees and the London-based Observatory for Human Rights, two activist groups with a wide network of sources on the ground, reported that security forces stormed several villages in the southern and northern parts of the country, arresting scores on Tuesday.

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AP Writer Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.

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Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram

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U.S. envoy visits Syria town, U.N. launches inquiry (Reuters)

AMMAN, Aug 23 Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador made a surprise trip to a southern Syrian town on Tuesday, his second visit to an area rocked by protests against President Bashar al-Assad and a move likely to antagonize the authorities in Damascus.

As a U.N. humanitarian team toured the country, security forces raided the countryside near the city of Hama, killing at least five people in assaults to subdue pro-democracy demonstrations, local activists said.

Houses were stormed in several villages and towns in the al-Ghab Plain, farmland east of the Mediterranean coast that contains the Roman city of Apamea, they said.

"Shabbiha (pro-Assad militiamen) accompanied the military. We have one name of the five martyrs, Omar Mohammed Saeed al-Khateeb," said an activist in Hama, which has been under military siege since it was stormed at the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on August 1.

The United Nations says 2,200 people have been killed in Syria and the U.N.'s human rights council launched an investigation on Tuesday into the violence, including possible crimes against humanity, despite objections from Russia, China and Cuba.

The bloodshed was wrought by Assad's crackdown on a 5-month-old popular uprising that prompted the United States and European Union to widen sanctions against Syria last week and to call on the Syrian president to step aside.

At the United Nations, Western nations circulated a draft resolution calling for sanctions against Assad, influential members of his family and key associates but Russian opposition loomed.

The resolution -- drafted by Britain, France, Germany, Portugal and the United States and obtained by Reuters -- calls for freezing financial assets of Assad, along with 22 other Syrians. It also calls for a ban on weapons sales to Syria.

But Vitaly Churin, Moscow's ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters it was not time for sanctions on Damascus.

Russia, which has veto power over U.N. resolutions, is a major arms supplier to Syria. China, South Africa, Brazil and India also have indicated they would have trouble supporting punitive measures against Damascus.

In Jassem, a town about 30 km (19 miles) east of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, residents said U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford toured an area where activists say Syrian forces killed at least 12 people in May in response to major unrest.

Ford angered Damascus seven weeks ago when he went to Hama in a gesture of solidarity with the city where huge anti-Assad protests occurred in June and July. At the start of August, Assad sent troops into Hama to crush demonstrations.

Damascus accused Ford of inciting unrest -- a charge Washington denied -- and banned Western diplomats from leaving Damascus and its outskirts.

"He came by car this morning, although Jassem is swarming with secret police," a resident told Reuters. "He got out and spent a good time walking round. He was careful not to be seen talking with people, apparently not to cause them harm."

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed Ford spent about four hours in Jassem. She said he had informed Syrian authorities only after the trip was complete.

"In this case he informed the Syrian Foreign Ministry after the visit and he made clear to them that the reason that he didn't inform them before the visit was because they haven't been approving any visits by anybody, anywhere," she said.

Ford, the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since Washington withdrew its envoy in the wake of the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, has been outspoken in criticizing authorities for firing at protesters.

Nuland said Ford spoke with a number of Jassem residents, including some associated with the opposition, and expressed support.

"His message back to them was that we stand with them and that we admire the fact that their action has been completely peaceful," she said, adding that Syria's official reaction to the trip had so far been "relatively muted."

International condemnation of Syria's harsh repression of street unrest escalated this month after Assad sent the army into several cities including Hama, Deir al-Zor and Latakia.

Arab states broke months of silence to call for an end to the violence and neighboring Turkey, which for years had close relations with Damascus, has also told Assad to rein in his security forces.

U.N. INQUIRY

The U.N. Human Rights Council launched an international commission of inquiry into Assad's crackdown, condemning what it called "continued grave and systematic human rights violations by Syrian authorities such as arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and the killing and persecution of protesters and human rights defenders."

The 47-member forum easily adopted a resolution presented by the European Union, the United States and Arab countries including Saudi Arabia.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement: "Urgent and proper action is paramount to investigate these violations, identify those responsible and ensure that perpetrators of violations are held accountable."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the creation of the investigative commission and urged Assad to step aside.

Separately on Tuesday, the EU agreed to extend sanctions against Syria, adding 15 people and five institutions to the list of those already targeted by travel bans and asset freezes.

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui, rejected the council resolution as unbalanced.

"This once again confirms that there is a determination to politically condemn Syria and pass over any proposal for opening and reform that exists in this country," he said in an appeal before the vote for members to reject the resolution.

The delegations of Russia, China and Cuba all took the floor to denounce what they called interference in Syria's internal affairs and said they would vote against the text. Ecuador also voted against the resolution.

The vote came after Syrian forces shot dead three people in the city of Homs on Monday, the same day that a U.N. humanitarian team visited the city, according to activists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces and loyalist gunmen known as "shabbiha" opened fire after hundreds of people took to the streets.

The official Syrian news agency SANA said gunmen had opened fire at police in front of the government building in Homs as the U.N. team was passing by, killing one policeman.

Assad's government has blamed armed groups for the violence and has said more than 500 soldiers and police have been killed since the unrest erupted in March.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Paul Simao and Bill Trott)

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Syria conflict descends into 'war of attrition'

BEIRUT — Despite five months of blistering attacks on dissent, the Syrian regime has yet to score a decisive victory against a pro-democracy uprising determined to bring down the country's brutal dictatorship.

President Bashar Assad still has the military muscle to level pockets of resistance, but the conflict has robbed him of almost all international support.

Story: Showing Hama in ruins, Syria says revolt quelled

Even Saudi Arabia this week called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria, the first of several Arab nations to join the growing chorus against Assad.

The Syrian leader is being watched carefully at home and abroad to see how long his iron regime — which is still strong but wobbling — will continue to use tanks, snipers and security forces on hundreds of thousands of fervent, overwhelmingly young protesters who keep coming back for more.

"Syria is not burying the revolution," said Nabil Bou Monsef, a senior analyst at the Arabic-language An-Nahar newspaper. "Protests are resuming everywhere, even in areas that were subject to crackdowns."

He added: "It is difficult for one of the sides to win. Syria has entered a war of attrition between the regime and the opposition."

There is little to stop Assad from calling upon the scorched-earth tactics that have kept his family in power for more than 40 years. A longtime pariah, Syria grew accustomed to shrugging off the world's reproach long before the regime started shooting unarmed protesters five months ago.

A military intervention has been all but ruled out, given the quagmire in Libya and the lack of any strong opposition leader in Syria to rally behind. The U.S. and other nations have little power to threaten further isolation or economic punishment of Assad's pro-Iranian regime — unlike in Egypt, where President Barack Obama was able to help usher longtime ally Hosni Mubarak out of power.

Video: Syrian crackdown intensifies (on this page)

International sanctions, some of which target Assad personally, have failed to persuade him to ease his crackdown. There had been hopes, since dashed, that European Union sanctions would prove a humiliating personal blow to Assad, a 45-year-old eye doctor who trained in Britain.

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Until the uprising began, Assad had cultivated an image as a modern leader in a region dominated by aging dictators. He was seen around Damascus with his glamorous wife, Asma, who grew up in London and was the subject of a glowing profile in Vogue just before the protests erupted. The couple's three small children added to their luster as youthful and energetic.

Relentless military assaults grow more deadly
But the relentless military assaults on rebellious towns have only grown more deadly. The latest wave of bloodshed started a week ago, on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, when tanks and snipers laid siege to Hama, a city in central Syria that had largely freed itself from government control earlier this year.

Residents were left cowering in their homes, too terrified to peek through the windows. The city is haunted by memories of the regime's tactics: In 1982, Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez, ordered the military to quell a rebellion by Syrian members of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood movement there, sealing off the city in an assault that killed between 10,000 and 25,000 people.

Since the start of Ramadan, more than 300 people have been killed in cities including Hama and Deir el-Zour, an oil-rich but largely impoverished region known for its well-armed clans and tribes whose ties extend across eastern Syria and into Iraq.

Syria has blocked nearly all outside witnesses to the carnage by banning foreign media and restricting local coverage that strays from the party line, which states the regime is fighting thugs and religious extremists who are acting out a foreign conspiracy.

Besides the secretly recorded videos that leak of Syria every day and accounts by witnesses who whisper down telephone lines, Assad has managed to keep the eyes of the world off his bloodied nation.

But Syria's troubles do not end at the country's borders.

A geographical and political keystone
Syria is a geographical and political keystone in the heart of the Middle East, bordering five countries with whom it shares religious and ethnic minorities and, in Israel's case, a fragile truce. Its web of allegiances extends to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran's Shiite theocracy.

A destabilized Syria, consequently, could send unsettling ripples through the region.

Syria has a volatile sectarian divide, making civil unrest one of the most dire scenarios. The Assad regime is dominated by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, but the country is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.

Alawite dominance has bred resentments, which Assad has worked to tamp down by pushing a strictly secular identity. But he now appears to be relying heavily on his Alawite power base, beginning with highly placed relatives, to crush the resistance.

The uprising has brought long-simmering sectarian tensions to the surface.

In the revolt's early days, it became clear many foreign leaders were loath to see Assad go. While few supported his policies, Assad had managed to keep his country stable and out of war with Israel.

Mindful of this backhanded support, Assad exploits those fears of chaos and sectarian warfare, portraying himself as the only man who can guarantee stability.

But the early, muted response to the bloodshed in Syria is over.

Arab nations join international chorus
This week, Arab nations have joined the international chorus against Assad for the first time. Saudi Arabia's king — who does not tolerate dissent in his own country — demanded "an end to the killing machine" and recalled his country's ambassador to Damascus late Sunday. On Monday, Bahrain and Kuwait followed suit.

A statement posted on a Facebook page used by protesters lauded the Arab governments for recalling their envoys.

"Arab governments stood and faced the butcher Bashar al-Assad, and stood on the side of the great Syrian people," said a statement on the "We are all Hamza al-Khatib" page, set up in honor of a 13-year-old boy who was killed in the crackdown.

The U.S., the European Union and even longtime ally Russia have issued scathing statements against Assad, imploring him to stop the bloodshed. The U.S. and the EU have imposed sanctions.

Despite his determination to stay in power, Assad's regime is undoubtedly hurting.

The security forces, which are the backbone of the regime and the driving force behind the culture of fear and paranoia in Syria, are overextended, exhausted and underpaid.

The unrest is eviscerating the economy, threatening to hurt the business community and prosperous merchant classes that are key to propping up the regime. An influential bloc, the business leaders have long traded political freedoms for enriching economic privileges.

Business community needs 'safe alternative' to Assads
It is unlikely, however, that they will abandon the regime entirely without a viable alternative.

"Before they will help overthrow the Assads, they need a safe alternative," Joshua Landis, director of the University of Oklahoma's Center for Middle East Studies, wrote in a recent analysis.

"They are not going to embrace — not to mention, fund — a leaderless bunch of young activists who want to smash everything that smells of Baathist privilege, corruption and cronyism," said Landis, who runs an influential blog called Syria Comment.

But the revolution has tapped into an underlying well of resentment in Syria, a closed society in which people had long been deeply fearful of a pervasive security apparatus. Now that protesters have broken through that wall of fear, many observers see little chance of turning back.

"The regime is now the prisoner of the security solution, and the opposition will also become a prisoner of escalation," said Bou Monsef, the An-Nahar analyst. "Syria has entered a tunnel, and it's difficult to know how it will end."

Interactive: Young and restless: Demographics fuel Mideast protests (on this page)

After condemnation, assault continues
Even after condemnation from its Arab neighbors, Syrian security forces continued their assault Monday.

Syrian tanks and troops poured into the eastern Sunni city of Deir al-Zor in the latest stage of a campaign to crush centers of protest against 41 years of Assad family rule.

"Armored vehicles are shelling the al-Hawiqa district heavily with their guns. Private hospitals are closed and people are afraid to send the wounded to state facilities because they are infested with secret police," Mohammad, a Deir al-Zor resident who did not want to give his full name.

He said at least 65 people had been killed since tanks and Armored vehicles barreled into the provincial capital, 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Damascus, Sunday, crumpling makeshift barricades and opening fire.

Later Monday Assad fired defense minister Ali Habib and replaced him with chief of staff General Daoud Rajha. The state news agency said Habib was ill. Habib had been added to an EU sanctions list last week for his role in crushing protests.

Syria's military is effectively under the command of Assad's brother Maher. Many officers are from the Assad family's minority Alawite sect.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said among those killed were a mother and her two children, an elderly woman and a young girl. Syria has expelled most independent media since the uprising began, making it hard to confirm accounts.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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