THU 28 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Apr 13, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Syrian security forces crack down on Banias despite calls for restraint

Syrian security forces locked down the town of Banias and raked the nearby village of Baida with gunfire Tuesday, witnesses told AFP by telephone, as world criticism of the crackdown mounted.
“Security forces and armed men are firing machine guns indiscriminately at the village,” a witness said.


“The gunfire against Baida is intense like the rain. At least one person was injured,” another witness told AFP.
Syria’s leading pro-democracy group, the Damascus Declaration, urged the Arab League to impose sanctions on the regime and said the death toll from more than three weeks of unrest had topped 200.


The White House condemned the mounting crackdown on dissent in Syria. “The escalating repression by the Syrian government is outrageous, and the United States strongly condemns the continued efforts to suppress peaceful protesters,” press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.


“President [Bashar] Assad and the Syrian government must respect the universal rights of the Syrian people, who are rightly demanding the basic freedoms that they have been denied.”
While the U.N. human rights chief warned against excessive use of force.


“The High Commissioner has emphasized to the Syrian authorities that the use of force against peaceful protesters has not quelled discontent anywhere in the region and to take immediate action to stop the excessive use of force, particularly the use of live ammunition against peaceful protesters,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.


But Syria-ally Iran said Tuesday that the demonstrations are part of a plot by the West to undermine a government that supports “resistance” in the Middle East.


“What is happening in Syria is a mischievous act of Westerners, particularly Americans and Zionists,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.


The army kept a stranglehold on the coastal town of Banias, 280 kilometers north of Damascus, where residents said they faced a bread shortage.
“Security forces and the army continue to assault Banias and we know what they are preparing for us,” said Anas al-Shuhri, one of the leaders of anti-regime protesters.


“There is a shortage of bread in the city, electricity is cut and the majority of phone lines are too,” he added.
Abdel-Basset, an electrician, told AFP the situation was “extremely bad.”


“The army was redeployed outside the city and the security forces and shabbiha [regime agents] conducted a number of arrests. The town is dead, shops are closed,” he said.


“Banias is surrounded by tanks, no one can get in or out. It is like a prison,” said Yasser, a shopkeeper.
“We cannot get bread anymore in Banias. Bread supplies were brought from [the city of] Tartous but that is not enough. The petrol stations are also closed,” he added.


Yasser said: “Security forces were responsible for killing soldiers in Banias because they had refused to attack the city,” an account that differed sharply from the official version of events.


Preacher Sheikh Mohammad said: “Several families evacuated women and children [to the outskirts of the town], because we are in the Ras al-Nabee neighborhood which was targeted by gunfire from Al-Quz neighborhood.
“The bakers of the town do not have enough bread,” he added.


The army has encircled Banias since Sunday, when regime agents opened fired on residents, particularly those in mosques, killing four people and wounding 17, according to witnesses.
The official SANA news agency had said nine soldiers, including two officers were killed Sunday when their patrol was ambushed outside Banias.


Meanwhile, human rights lawyer Khalil Maatouk reported the arrest Tuesday of the head of the banned communist party, the latest opposition figure detained in a crackdown on nationwide protests.



 
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