BEIRUT/AMMAN: 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 Syrian state 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 gang and thugs are driving the violence, not true reform-seekers.

The U.N. Human Rights Council voted Tuesday to launch an investigation into the violence, including possible crimes against humanity, 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, despite objections from Russia, China and Cuba which denounced what they called interference. Ecuador also voted against the resolution. 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.”
Separately Tuesday, the EU agreed to extend sanctions against Syria, adding 15 people and five institutions to the list of those already targeted.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Tuesday Moscow did not believe it was time to impose sanctions on Syria. Western nations on the U.N. Security Council say they are drafting a sanctions resolution but Russia, along with Britain, China, France and the U.S. has the power to veto a resolution. Churkin’s remarks suggest persuading Moscow to back tough measures will be difficult.
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 vote came after Syrian forces shot dead three people in the city of Homs Monday, the same day a U.N. humanitarian team visited the city, activists said.

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.
U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York that “a protest situation developed” in Homs during the team’s visit “and the mission was advised to leave for security reasons.
“The mission did not come under fire,” he added.

The official Syrian news agency SANA said gunmen had opened fire at police in front of the governorate building in Homs as the U.N. team was passing by, killing one policeman.
Syria has expelled most independent media since the unrest began, making it hard to verify reports of events on the ground.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Syria said that Ambassador Robert Ford visited the country’s south after getting permission from the Syrian Foreign Ministry. An official at the embassy described it as a “short and routine” trip to the village of Jassem near the southern city of Deraa. The area has been witnessing large anti-government protests.

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