THU 28 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Aug 18, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Assad refuses to bow down to foreign pressure

BEIRUT: Syrian troops detained scores of people in Damascus and the coastal city of Latakia in overnight raids as President Bashar Assad’s regime tried to forcefully end a five-month uprising, activists said Wednesday.
The central committee of the Baath party, in power since 1963, meanwhile, met for the first time since protests against Assad erupted in mid-March, pro-government daily Al-Watan said.


In comments carried on the state-run news agency, SANA, Assad lashed out at the international reproach, saying that any reform in Syria will not be in response to “foreign pressure” and that Syria will not give up its “dignity and sovereignty.”


With tension rising, the U.N. said it has temporarily withdrawn about two dozen “nonessential” international staff from Syria because of security concerns. U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq also said some family members of U.N. staff have been relocated to other countries.


The government insists its crackdown is aimed at rooting out terrorists fomenting unrest in the country. Human rights groups accuse Syrian troops of firing on largely unarmed protesters and say more than 1,800 civilians have been killed since mid-March.
The most recent military operations have targeted Latakia, the opposition stronghold of Hama, the central city of Homs and Deir al-Zour to the east.


In Latakia, a Mediterranean port city that has been subjected to a four-day military assault, security centers were overflowing with detainees Wednesday, forcing authorities to hold hundreds of other prisoners in the city’s main football stadium and a movie theater, said Rami Abdul-Raham, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Detentions centers are full,” he said.


A woman in Latakia died of her wounds Wednesday, two days after she was injured, according to the observatory and The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group. The LCC said a man was killed in the city late Tuesday.


Hundreds of security agents conducted house-to-house raids in the Ramel neighborhood, the observatory and LCC said. Ramel is home to a crowded Palestinian refugee camp where many low-income Syrians also live. The U.N. says at least 10,000 Palestinian refugees living in Ramel have fled the violence.


The Mediterranean city had been subjected to a four-day military assault that has killed at least 37 people, during which gunboats went into action for the first time since the start of the revolts in mid-March, according to activists.
SANA reports denied any maritime operation and quoted a military official saying security forces were “hunting armed men” in Latakia districts “who opened fire on residents.”


SANA reported forces entered the area and arrested a number of gunmen, also dismantling bombs and mines planted in Ramel streets. Amateur videos posted online showed soldiers in SUVs and pickup trucks as they drove down a street apparently in Latakia. The troops were greeted by Assad supporters chanting “our souls and our blood we sacrifice for you Bashar.”


The Associated Press could not verify the videos. Syria has banned most foreign media and restricted local coverage, making it impossible to get independent confirmation of the events on the ground.
In the northwestern Idlib province, a bullet killed a man as he stood on his balcony, according to observatory for Human Rights.


In Homs, security forces shot dead one person and wounded three during raids Wednesday, according to the observatory.



 
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