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Oops! Scrub that. Switzerland left Syria very recently also, as it said Syria is too violent.
Syria sounds like it is a powder keg this week.
Where is High Gravity when you need him?
I am here.
I sure hope Americans heeded the warning and got out of Syria in the last 3 weeks."Now that military operations in Libya are ending, there will be renewed focus on what practical military operations might be considered to protect civilian lives in Syria," McCain told a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan. US Senator John McCain raised the prospect Sunday of possible armed intervention to protect civilians in Syria where a crackdown on pro-democracy protests has killed more than 3,000 people. Breitbart
Oops! Scrub that. Switzerland left Syria very recently also, as it said Syria is too violent.
Syria sounds like it is a powder keg this week.
Where is High Gravity when you need him?
I am here.
Glad you are. I just ran into a link from Drudgereport on a Senator on the Armed Services Committee:
I sure hope Americans heeded the warning and got out of Syria in the last 3 weeks."Now that military operations in Libya are ending, there will be renewed focus on what practical military operations might be considered to protect civilian lives in Syria," McCain told a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan. US Senator John McCain raised the prospect Sunday of possible armed intervention to protect civilians in Syria where a crackdown on pro-democracy protests has killed more than 3,000 people. Breitbart
Iran had a severe warning issued Oct 21 for Americans to get out.
Libya sounds frightening lately with Gadhafi's body rotting while factions fight over the outcome of his remains and Iranian type fundamentals are seizing power.I am here.
Glad you are. I just ran into a link from Drudgereport on a Senator on the Armed Services Committee:
I sure hope Americans heeded the warning and got out of Syria in the last 3 weeks."Now that military operations in Libya are ending, there will be renewed focus on what practical military operations might be considered to protect civilian lives in Syria," McCain told a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan. US Senator John McCain raised the prospect Sunday of possible armed intervention to protect civilians in Syria where a crackdown on pro-democracy protests has killed more than 3,000 people. Breitbart
Iran had a severe warning issued Oct 21 for Americans to get out.
Americans really should not be in those countries right now, its not rocket science. Anyone who has a television can see whats going on, Americans make easy targets during these revolts in Muslim countries.
Libya sounds frightening lately with Gadhafi's body rotting while factions fight over the outcome of his remains and Iranian type fundamentals are seizing power.Glad you are. I just ran into a link from Drudgereport on a Senator on the Armed Services Committee:
I sure hope Americans heeded the warning and got out of Syria in the last 3 weeks.
Iran had a severe warning issued Oct 21 for Americans to get out.
Americans really should not be in those countries right now, its not rocket science. Anyone who has a television can see whats going on, Americans make easy targets during these revolts in Muslim countries.
As Lily Tomlin might have said, it's just one ringy-dingy after another.
"I am sick, I cannot sleep," says Hervin Ose, fighting back tears as she remembers her friend and fellow Syrian Kurdish activist, Mashaal Tammo. "Till now I cannot believe he is not here. Sometimes I even try to call him, sometimes I wait for him to call me."
On Friday Oct. 7, Hervin met Tammo at a friend's house in Qamishli, a Kurdish-majority town in northeastern Syria, just across the border from Turkey. "He had a sadness about him," she recalls, speaking via Skype. Tammo, one of the few Syrian Kurdish leaders to have openly called for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, had recently escaped an assassination attempt. Now he spoke as if he was going away on a long trip. "My message is finished in this life," he told her. Before taking his leave Tammo even snapped a few pictures of his friend. "I wondered," says Hervin. "He'd never taken a photo of me before."
It was the last time she was to see him alive. Hours later, according to reports, masked assailants gunned down Tammo inside his Qamishli home, leaving his son and another Kurdish activist wounded. Hervin, who insisted on being quoted by her real name "I am a wanted person already... I am tired of being afraid," she says has no doubts as to who ordered her friend's murder. "Bashar," she says, "he made this decision."
The day of the funeral, after going to see Tammo's body at the morgue, Hervin joined tens of thousands of people as many 100,000, she says, though most observers put the figure at 50,000 on the streets of Qamishli. It was, by any count, the largest protest in the northeast since the beginning of the popular uprising against the Assad regime. It too ended in bloodshed when Syrian security forces began to spray the mourners with gunfire, killing at least two people.
Although protests have been taking place in the north since the early spring, they now show signs of escalating, observers say. (Since Tammo's funeral, they have continued every day, one activist told me.) According to Henri Barkey, a Lehigh University professor and former State Department official, the fresh wave of demonstrations may well mark the Syrian Kurds' long awaited entry into the popular revolt against Assad. "After Tammo's murder, [the Kurds] are now a party to the conflict," says Barkey. As he sees it, "increased mobilization" in the Kurdish northeast, one of the poorest and least developed regions of Syria, now appears to be imminent.
Of course, were Syria's Kurds to rise up en masse, the numbers of protesters would be much higher, acknowledges Hervin. (Syria is home to 2 million Kurds, or about 10% of the population.) What stands in the way, she says, is the disconnect between a number of local political parties and the people on the street, particularly young Kurds. "The young people understand the responsibility they have, they understand that the Syrian revolution needs their help," she says. "The normal people support, they have joined ... but the parties haven't made up their mind."
<you must spread some reputation around before you give some to High Gravity again>Libya sounds frightening lately with Gadhafi's body rotting while factions fight over the outcome of his remains and Iranian type fundamentals are seizing power.Americans really should not be in those countries right now, its not rocket science. Anyone who has a television can see whats going on, Americans make easy targets during these revolts in Muslim countries.
As Lily Tomlin might have said, it's just one ringy-dingy after another.
The smart money is on Libya becoming a Islamic third world shit hole, but I hope they can go against the grain and make something better. Time will tell whether they can or not.
<you must spread some reputation around before you give some to High Gravity again>Libya sounds frightening lately with Gadhafi's body rotting while factions fight over the outcome of his remains and Iranian type fundamentals are seizing power.
As Lily Tomlin might have said, it's just one ringy-dingy after another.
The smart money is on Libya becoming a Islamic third world shit hole, but I hope they can go against the grain and make something better. Time will tell whether they can or not.
I hope Libya learns to become a good neighbor to the world in the near future. The trouble with brutal dictatorships is that people living in them get so used to the killings and brutality as normal and pass it on once they're free of it. It's a vicious cycle.
BEIJING China said Tuesday that it was sending an envoy to Syria after blocking a U.N. resolution earlier this month that threatened sanctions, and reiterated that it wants a political solution to the country's ongoing crisis.
Wu Sike, China's special envoy on the Middle East, will visit Syria and Egypt from Wednesday through Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said.
The uprising in Syria has proven remarkably resilient even though the government has tried relentlessly to crush the revolt. The United Nations says more than 3,000 people have been killed in the government crackdown on the protests, and international pressure has been building for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday that Beijing wants all parties in Syria to resolve the crisis peacefully.
"We believe the Syrian government should deliver on its reform pledges, respond to the people's appeals and that all parties should, in a constructive manner, actively participate in the political process," Jiang said in a regular briefing.
China and Russia vetoed the already watered-down Security Council resolution criticizing the Syrian government for suppressing protests because they objected to language that left open the possibility of sanctions against Syria.
The opposition movement driving Syria's 7-month-old uprising has mostly focused on peaceful demonstrations, although recently there have been reports of protesters taking up arms to defend themselves against military attacks. There have also been increasing reports of defections from the military, highlighting a trend that has raised fears that Syria may be sliding toward civil war.
The United States has pulled its ambassador out of Syria, arguing that his support for anti-Assad activists put him in grave danger. Syria responded quickly Monday, ordering home its envoy from Washington.
BEIRUT Senior Arab officials visiting Syria pressed President Bashar Assad on Wednesday to start a dialogue with the opposition, hours after tens of thousands packed a Damascus square to show support for their embattled leader, state TV reported.
The Arab ministerial committee led by Qatar's prime minister began a meeting with Assad later in the afternoon, but prospects for the mission's success were dim. The opposition's refuses any dialogue with the regime, particularly while it continues its military crackdown on protesters, which the U.N. says has killed 3,000 people since March.
Activists said at least nine civilians were killed Wednesday in military operations across the country, six of them in the flashpoint central city of Homs.
The Arab officials' visit follows a meeting in Cairo last week by the 22-nation Arab League, which gave Syria until the end of the month to end military operations, release detainees arrested in the crackdown, and start a dialogue with the opposition.
Bassma Kodmani, spokeswoman for the broad-based opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said it is "impossible" to talk about a dialogue within the current security crackdown.
"And even if the right conditions for dialogue prevail, the only thing to discuss would be a roadmap for the peaceful transfer of power," she told The Associated Press.
Paris-based Kodmani echoed the feelings of Syrian anti-government protesters, many of whom expressed disappointment with the Arab League and called for suspending Syria's membership.
"Russia gives Bashar international protection, Iran gives him weapons, and Arabs give him time," read a banner carried by protesters in northern Syria Tuesday evening. "No dialogue with the killer of children," read another.
The SNC had said in a statement Tuesday it was worried that the Arab League's initiative "did not distinguish between the victim and the executioner."
It also called for international protection for civilians, and for Arab and international observers to be allowed immediately into Syria to monitor the situation.
Human Rights Watch also called on the Arab ministers to demand that the government allow independent, civilian monitors into Syria to observe the behavior of security forces.
Tens of thousands of Syrians carrying white, red and black flags and posters of Assad gathered at Damascus' Omayyad square in a rally timed to coincide with the Arab ministers' visit.
The opposition says authorities regularly stage massive rallies in support of the embattled leader even as his regime becomes increasingly isolated.
Assad, however, still has significant support among many Syrians, including those who benefited financially from the regime, minority groups who fear they will be targeted if the Sunni majority takes over and others who see no clear and safe alternative to the president. He also still has the loyalty of the bulk of the armed forces, key to his remaining in power.
Damascus appears to have grudgingly agreed to the Arab mission even though it refuses to have outsiders interfere in what it considers its internal affairs.
Gulf countries seeking to suspend Syria's membership in the Arab League because of its bloody crackdown on protesters failed to gain enough support for the move at the Oct. 16 meeting in Cairo.
Human Rights Watch also quoted Syrian activists as saying at least 186 protesters and residents have been killed in Syria since the Cairo meeting.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other rights groups said nine civilians were killed Wednesday in shootings by security forces nationwide, including six in the restive city of Homs. The Observatory also reported nine soldiers were killed in Hama province when the bus they were traveling in was hit by a rocket propelled grenade.
ANTAKYA, Turkey Once one of Syrias closest allies, Turkey is hosting an armed opposition group waging an insurgency against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, providing shelter to the commander and dozens of members of the group, the Free Syrian Army, and allowing them to orchestrate attacks across the border from inside a camp guarded by the Turkish military.
The support for the insurgents comes amid a broader Turkish campaign to undermine Mr. Assads government. Turkey is expected to impose sanctions soon on Syria, and it has deepened its support for an umbrella political opposition group known as the Syrian National Council, which announced its formation in Istanbul. But its harboring of leaders in the Free Syrian Army, a militia composed of defectors from the Syrian armed forces, may be its most striking challenge so far to Damascus.
On Wednesday, the group, living in a heavily guarded refugee camp in Turkey, claimed responsibility for killing nine Syrian soldiers, including one uniformed officer, in an attack in restive central Syria.
Turkish officials describe their relationship with the groups commander, Col. Riad al-Asaad, and the 60 to 70 members living in the officers camp as purely humanitarian. Turkeys primary concern, the officials said, is for the physical safety of defectors. When asked specifically about allowing the group to organize military operations while under the protection of Turkey, a Foreign Ministry official said that their only concern was humanitarian protection and that they could not stop them from expressing their views.
At the time all of these people escaped from Syria, we did not know who was who, it was not written on their heads I am a soldier or I am an opposition member, said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol. We are providing these people with temporary residence on humanitarian grounds, and that will continue.
At the moment, the group is too small to pose any real challenge to Mr. Assads government. But its Turkish support underlines how combustible, and resilient, Syrias uprising has proven. The country sits at the intersection of influences in the region with Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Israel and Turkeys involvement will be closely watched by Syrias friends and foes.
We will fight the regime until it falls and build a new period of stability and safety in Syria, Colonel Asaad said in an interview arranged by the Turkish Foreign Ministry and conducted in the presence of a foreign ministry official. We are the leaders of the Syrian people and we stand with the Syrian people.
The interview was held in the office of a local government official, and Colonel Asaad arrived protected by a contingent of 10 heavily armed Turkish soldiers, including one sniper.
The colonel wore a business suit that an official with the Turkish Foreign Ministry said he purchased for him that morning. At the end of the meeting, citing security concerns, the colonel and a Foreign Ministry official advised that all further contact with his group be channeled through the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
Turkey once viewed its warm ties with Syria as its greatest foreign policy accomplishment, but relations have collapsed over the eight months of anti-government protests there and a brutal crackdown that the United Nations says has killed more than 3,000.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey was personally offended by Mr. Assads repeated failure to abide by his assurances that he would undertake sweeping reform. Turkish officials predict that the Assad government may collapse within the next two years.
This pushes Turkish policy further towards active intervention in Syria, said Hugh Pope, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. He called Turkeys apparent relationship with the Free Syrian Army completely new territory.
BEIRUT (AP) Syrian security forces opened fire Friday on protesters and hunted them down in house-to-house raids, killing about 30 people in the deadliest day in weeks in the country's 7-month-old uprising, activists said.
The popular revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime has proved remarkably resilient, with protests erupting every week despite the near-certainty the government will respond with bullets and tear gas. The U.N. estimates the regime crackdown on the protests has killed 3,000 people since March.
Much of the bloodshed Friday happened after the protests had ended and security forces armed with machine guns chased protesters and activists, according to opposition groups monitoring the demonstrations. Authorities disrupted telephone and Internet service, they said.
The Syrian opposition's two main activist groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordinating Committees, gave figures for the protesters killed on Friday ranging from 29 to 37.
The flashpoints were Homs and Hama in central Syria, where opposition to the regime is strong. Hama is the site of a massacre nearly 30 years ago which has come to symbolize the ruthlessness of the Assad dynasty.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the observatory, said security forces in Homs were firing machine guns as they conducted raids in search of protesters and activists. In Hama, there were heavy clashes between the army and gunmen believed to be army defectors.
Syria has largely sealed off the country from foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting, making it difficult to confirm events on the ground. Key sources of information are amateur videos posted online, witness accounts and details gathered by activist groups.
Communications were spotty Friday in the Damascus suburb of Douma and in Homs. The move appeared to be an attempt to cut off the opposition's ability to organize and report on the protests.
"There was a very fierce reaction to the protests in Homs today," said Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso. Syrian forces opened fire as some 2,000 people gathered for protests, he said.
"There are many injured as well. Hospitals are having a hard time coping with the casualties," Osso told The Associated Press.
Majd Amer, an activist in Homs said sporadic gunfire could be heard as protesters poured out of mosques following Friday prayers.
It is difficult to gauge the strength of the revolt in Syria, a country of 22 million people. The crackdown does not appear to have significantly reduced the number of protests, but neither does the regime appear to be in any imminent danger of collapse.
The regime appears to lack sufficient numbers of loyal troops to garrison all the centers of unrest at the same time, so government forces will often sweep through an area in the wake of protests, breaking up new gatherings and hunting activists, before being deployed elsewhere.
The result has been a monthslong stalemate. Still, the capture and subsequent death of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, under still-unclear circumstances, has energized the opposition. Last week, thousands of Syrians took to the streets shouting that Assad will be next.
The protests come amid efforts by the Arab League to end the bloodshed, and debates within the opposition on how to bring international pressure to bear on the regime.
On Friday, many protesters said they wanted a no-fly zone established over Syria to protect civilians in case the Syrian regime considers attacking protesters from the sky, the activist groups said.
BEIRUT In a country ruled for more than four decades by an autocratic regime, the Syrian uprising has brought forth an abundance of opposition figures jostling for their first real taste of power.
Seven months on, the opposition is struggling to overcome infighting and inexperience, preventing the movement from gaining the traction it needs to present a credible alternative to President Bashar Assad.
Time is not on their side the U.N. estimates that the military assault on protesters has killed some 3,000 since the uprising began in March and Assad's regime shows no sign of giving in to demands that he step down.
The divisions are tied to issues at the heart of the revolution: Whether to request foreign military assistance and accept dialogue with the regime and what ideology should guide a post-Assad Syria.
"There is fairly little experience in a movement whose members have been denied politics as a process for half a century," Murhaf Jouejati, a Syria expert at George Washington University in the United States told The Associated Press.
Unlike Libya's National Transitional Council, which brought together most factions fighting Gadhafi's regime and was quickly recognized by much of the international community, Syria's opposition has no leadership on the ground.
Regime opponents in Syria are a diverse group, representing the country's ideological, sectarian and generational divide. They include dissidents who spent years in prison, tech-savvy activists in their 20s, former Marxists, Islamists and Paris-based intellectuals.
Communication between those abroad and those in the country is extremely difficult. Political activists in Syria are routinely rounded up and imprisoned. Many have gone into hiding, communicating only through Skype using fake names, and the country is largely sealed off to exiled dissidents and foreign journalists.
After months of negotiations, the majority of opposition groups from inside and outside the country came together in a broad-based, 230-seat Syrian National Council announced in Istanbul in September to forge a united front against Assad and a rallying point for Syrians and the international community.
The council's leadership currently headed by Burhan Ghalioun, a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris will rotate every three months, reflecting the absence of a single popular leader who stands out among the country's disparate groups.
The council's formation is a remarkable achievement given Syria's complex sectarian and ethnic makeup.
But the group has yet to gain the recognition of any countries other than Libya and faces criticism from opposition groups that declined to join, accusing it of trying to monopolize the movement.
Haitham al-Maleh, an 80-year-old lawyer who was imprisoned for years for his political activism, also accused the SNC of sidelining major figures and said the group never consulted him.
"We have a 50-year history of struggle against this regime, while nobody had heard of these people before," he said of the SNC leaders.
Bassma Kodmani, another Paris-based academic and a spokeswoman for the council, rejected the accusations and said the SNC was open for all Syrians. "We did not exclude anybody," she said, insisting the council represented the majority of Syrian society.
An attempt in July to hold a dual meeting in Damascus and Istanbul was canceled when security forces besieged the conference location in Damascus a day before it was scheduled to begin and shot dead 14 protesters in the area.
Foreign leaders have welcomed the formation of the SNC, but say the opposition needs more work to become an effective political force.
"The opposition must still improve its organizational and outreach efforts," said U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who returned to Washington this week over security concerns.
He said developing consensus around a specific political and economic plan would help persuade Sunni business elites and other Syrians still on the fence to defect from the regime.
"There is a huge need for the council to explain what exactly they will bring to Syria," Ford said during an address this month to The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
A key sticking point is whether to ask for foreign intervention like the NATO airstrikes that helped oust former Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.
The SNC's founding statement rejects foreign intervention, but its members are calling for "international protection for civilians," an ambiguous statement that leaves the door open for interpretation. The NATO action in Libya was carried out under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians but ultimately proved key to the rebel victory that led to Gadhafi's death.
SERHANIYEH, Lebanon -- Syria is planting landmines along parts of the country's border with Lebanon as refugees stream out of the country to escape the crackdown on anti-government protests, officials and witnesses said Tuesday.
The exodus to neighboring Lebanon and Turkey has proven a deep embarrassment for increasingly besieged President Bashar Assad, who warned over the weekend that the Middle East will burn if foreign powers try to intervene in his country's conflict.
A Syrian official familiar with government strategy claimed the mines are meant to prevent arms smuggling into Syria. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition that his name not be published because of the sensitivity of the matter. Witnesses on the Lebanese side of the border also told the AP they have seen Syrian soldiers planting the mines in recent days in Syrian territory in the restive province of Homs.
"Syria has undertaken many measures to control the borders, including planting mines," said the Syrian official.
More than 5,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon since the crisis began in March.
The landmines are the latest sign of just how deeply shaken the Assad regime has become since the uprising began nearly eight months ago. Assad, a 46-year-old eye doctor who trained in Britain, still has a firm grip on power, although the cost has been mighty: The U.N. says some 3,000 people have been killed by security forces.
Syria is a regional nexus, bordering five countries with which it shares religious and ethnic minorities and, in Israel's case, a fragile truce. Its web of alliances extends to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran's Shiite theocracy. Turkey, until recently an ally, has opened its borders to anti-Assad activists and breakaway military rebels.
Mining the Lebanese border is a sign of the country's increasing isolation.
The crackdown has eviscerated Assad's reputation, canceling out widespread hopes when he took power in 2000 that he might transform his late father's stagnant dictatorship into a modern state. Instead, Assad has reverted to the same tactics that have kept his family in power for more than 40 years, using fear and brute military force to try to break the popular revolt against his autocratic rule.
Three residents of the Lebanese border village of Serhaniyeh showed an AP reporter a long sand dune barrier along the frontier where they said Syrian troops laid mines. Ahmed Diab, 26, said several trucks carrying about a 100 soldiers arrived in the area on Thursday and spent the entire day planting mines on the side of the barriers that is toward Lebanon.
"Since they planted the mines, no one dares to go to the border line," said Diab, as he sat on his motorcycle near his home that overlooks parts of the Syrian province of Homs. Homs has seen some of the worst violence of the uprising.
Many Syrians cross the border into Lebanon regularly, some of them to flee the violence in their country. And the mines are the latest in a number of signs that Syria is working to prevent Lebanon from becoming a safe haven for the Syrian opposition.
There have been at least three cases this year of Syrian dissidents being snatched off the streets in Lebanon and spirited back across the border, Lebanese police say. The abductions have raised alarm among some in Lebanon that members of the country's security forces are helping Assad's regime in its crackdown on anti-government protesters, effectively extending it into Lebanon.
Syria had direct control over Lebanon for nearly 30 years before pulling out its troops in 2005 under local and international pressure. But Syria still has great influence, and pro-Syrian factions led by the militant group Hezbollah dominate the government in Beirut. At the same time, Syria's regime is becoming increasingly more isolated internationally.
There also have been reports of Syrian troops crossing into Lebanon to pursue dissidents. In September, the Lebanese army said in a statement that Syrian troops briefly crossed the border and opened fire at people trying to flee the violence in Syria.
A senior Lebanese security official confirmed that Syrian troops are planting mines on the Syrian side of the border, but said Beirut will not interfere with actions on Syrian territory.
"What concerns us are violations of Lebanese territories and Syrian troops pursuits of people on the Lebanese side of the border," the official said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Syria and Lebanon share a 230-mile (365-kilometer) long border, although it appears the landmines have been planted in Homs province where some of the worst violence of the uprising has occurred just across the border from Serhaniyeh, Lebanon. Mines also have been planted in the Baalbek region, which borders Homs and the Damascus countryside, witnesses say.
CAIRO (AP) Syria accepted an Arab League proposal calling for it to withdraw armored vehicles from the streets and stop violence against protesters in a bid to end the country's seven-month-old political crisis that has led to the deaths of some 3,000 people.
The agreement was announced by Qatar's Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim, who urged Damascus to follow through with action on the ground. Syria has continued its bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters despite international condemnation and previous promises of reform.
In the latest violence, machine-gun fire and explosions erupted inside a city at the heart of Syria's uprising as activists reported two grisly attacks that killed at least 20 people in the past 24 hours, although it was not clear who was behind the latest attacks.
Syria agreed to withdraw all tanks and armored vehicles from the streets, stop violence against protesters, release all political prisoners and begin a dialogue with the opposition within two weeks, according to the proposal.
Syria also agreed to allow journalists, rights groups and Arab League representatives to monitor the situation in the country.
"We are happy to have reached the agreement and we'll be happier if it is carried out," bin Jassim said. "Now it is important for the Syrian side to carry out this agreement because it is what will allow the situation to quiet down and the crisis to be resolved."
"We hope that there will be serious follow-through, whether regarding violence and killing or regarding prisoners," he said.
It remains unclear if the agreement will make a difference on the ground.
Nor did the proposal state where the dialogue between authorities and the opposition is to take place. Arab diplomats involved in the process said they had suggested Cairo while Syrian insisted that all dialogue take place in the capital Damascus.
Syria's opposition has refused to enter into any dialogue as long as President Bashar Assad remains in power.
The proposal was presented by a council of Arab foreign ministers. Notably, Syrian Foreign Minster Walid al-Moallem did not attend the meeting. Instead, Syria's ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League, Youssef Ahmed, delivered Syria's response.
The U.N. says some 3,000 people have been killed since the revolt began in March.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he supported the agreement.
"I hope that this agreement will be implemented without delay," he told reporters in Tripoli, Libya, but noting that Assad has not kept past promises.
The fresh bloodshed, which apparently started late Tuesday, suggests Syria is sliding toward chaos amid increasing signs that the crisis was exacerbating religious and sectarian tensions.
The violence shook residents across the city of Homs, which has endured the brunt of the Syrian government's brutal crackdown on dissent. It was not clear who was behind the latest attacks, and there were .
The Syrian opposition's two main activist groups said gunmen attacked factory workers in the Houla district on Wednesday, killing 11 people. Majd Amer, a local activist, said some of the men were decapitated and others shot in the head, their hands tied behind their backs.
Amateur videos posted online showed the men, bound and gagged, lying on the ground.
The killing spree amounted to a "massacre," said the activist groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activist network.
Amer and activist Mohammad Saleh in Homs said gunmen also attacked a bus carrying workers from the nearby village of Jib Abbas as they were returning from their jobs, killing nine passengers. They said the gunmen stopped the bus, released the women passengers, then killed the others.
BEIRUT -- Syrian tanks mounted with machine-guns fired Thursday on a city at the heart of the country's uprising, killing at least four people one day after Damascus agreed to an Arab League plan calling on the government to pull the military out of cities, activists said.
The violence does not bode well for the success of the Arab League initiative to solve a crisis that has endured for nearly eight months already with no sign of stopping despite a government crackdown that the U.N. estimates has left some 3,000 people dead.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the Baba Amr district of Homs came under heavy fire Thursday.
At least four people were killed in Homs, he said, citing witnesses in the city.
Syria has largely sealed off the country from foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting, making it difficult to confirm events on the ground. Key sources of information are amateur videos posted online, witness accounts and details gathered by activist groups.
Under the Arab League plan announced Wednesday, Damascus agreed to stop violence against protesters, release all political prisoners and begin a dialogue with the opposition within two weeks. Syria also agreed to allow journalists, rights groups and Arab League representatives to monitor the situation in the country.
Najib al-Ghadban, a U.S.-based Syrian activist and member of the opposition Syrian National Council, was skeptical that Syrian President Bashar Assad would hold up his end of the deal, and called the agreement "an attempt to buy more time."
"This regime is notorious for maneuvering and for giving promises and not implementing any of them," he said.
An Arab League plan to end eight months of violence in Syria appeared close to collapse Thursday less than 24 hours after the Syrian regime agreed to implement the proposal. As many as 20 people were reportedly killed in the flashpoint city of Homs in central Syria and fighting was also reported in the town of Tel Kalakh near the border with Lebanon, according to opposition activists.
The renewed violence appeared to shatter hopes that the Arab League deal would prove to be a breakthrough after months of trying to end internal unrest that has now left more than 3,000 people dead since mid-March Syrian activists say the death toll is as high as 4,000.
The proposal called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to withdraw its military forces from cities, release all detainees imprisoned since the uprising began, and to begin a dialogue with members of the Syrian opposition. The plan offered no deadline for its implementation, which raised skepticism among Syrian opposition activists that it would be honored.
Assad is a master at playing for time. He has no intention of implementing this proposal because he knows it would be the beginning of the end for him, says Ahmad, a young Syrian dissident who has been living in hiding in the north Lebanon city of Tripoli since August. I can assure you that if the army really withdraws from the cities, the protestors will be at the gates of Assads palace the next day.
BEIRUT Syrian security forces killed nine people Friday in strikes against thousands of protesters who took to the streets to test whether President Bashar Assad's regime would abide by an Arab League plan to end violence, activists said.
The bloodshed was a blow to the 22-nation Arab League, which announced Wednesday that Damascus agreed to a broad plan that included an end to violence against demonstrators.
Opposition groups called for a large turnout in Friday's protests to challenge whether the regime would make good on the agreement to refrain from using deadly force. Gunfire erupted shortly after the protests began, in the same pattern as previous Fridays for months.
"This regime is not serious about ending its brutal crackdown," said Mustafa Osso, a Syria-based human rights lawyer. "Today was a real test for the intentions of the regime and the answer is clear to everyone who wants to see."
Thousands of protesters braved cold and rainy weather to stage anti-Assad demonstrations.
"Arab League, beware of Bashar Assad," read one banner carried by protesters in the central city of Homs. "Which dialogue are you talking about?" read another.
Most opposition leaders refuse to meet with Assad because of his brutal crackdown, which has killed about 3,000 people in nearly eight months of protests, according to the U.N. Instead, protesters demand that Assad resign.
Two main activist groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordinating Committees, said at least nine people were killed Friday, most of them in Homs and suburbs of the Syrian capital.
Under the Arab League accord announced Wednesday in Cairo, the Syrian government agreed to pull tanks and armored vehicles out of cities, stop violence against protesters and release all political prisoners. Syria also agreed to allow journalists, rights groups and Arab League representatives to monitor the situation in the country.
"The regime is playing for time and has absolutely no intention of abiding by the agreement," Osso said.
Activists said Friday's rallies were largest in Homs, Syria's third-largest city and home to some 800,000 people, where the crackdown has been deadliest.
On Thursday, at least 18 people were reported to have been killed in a security crackdown in Homs.
A resident of Homs said mass marches formed after Friday prayers in most districts of the city, despite the heavy security presence and violence of the past days.
"They are big, they are calling for the downfall of the regime and they aim to show that the Arab League agreement is a joke," he said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Demonstrations were also reported in the southern province of Daraa and in the eastern cities of Deir el-Zour and Qamishli.
In the coastal town of Banias, security forces beat worshippers as they came out of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq mosque. Then they blockaded dozens more inside the building so that they could not join the march, activists said.
The government has largely sealed off the country from foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting, making it difficult to confirm events on the ground. Key sources of information are amateur videos posted online, witness accounts and details gathered by activist groups.
BEIRUT Syrian troops stormed a defiant neighborhood of the embattled city of Homs on Monday, kicking in doors and making arrests after nearly a week of violence pitting soldiers against army defectors and protesters demanding the downfall of President Bashar Assad, activists said.
It was not immediately clear if government troops had regained control of the Baba Amr district, where the government is reportedly facing armed resistance from defectors who have taken refuge in the neighborhood and in surrounding districts.
More than 110 people have been reported killed in the past week in Homs, a city of about 800,000 that has turned into one of the main centers of protest and reprisal during the nearly 8-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad, according to Ibrahim Hozan, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees activist network.
The violence comes despite claims by Syria that it is complying with an Arab League-sponsored plan to end the crackdown.
Activists said two people were killed in the city and the surrounding province on Monday, pushing the death toll from the past 24 hours to at least 18.
It was impossible to verify the death toll. Syria has banned most foreign journalists and restricted coverage, making independent confirmation nearly impossible.
Much of the violence of the past few days is reported to have involved members of the military who defected to the protesters and were fighting to protect civilians, according to Syrian activist groups.
"There is a major campaign of arrests going on in some of the toughest neighborhoods of the district," an activist in Homs told The Associated Press by telephone. He spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his personal safety.
Over the course of the uprising, government troops have cracked down repeatedly on Homs, Syria's third largest city, and have imposed a tight siege in the past five days.
Activists say that government forces have employed live fire to break up unarmed protests, and have used tank guns and other heavy weapons indiscriminately in residential areas. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday's dead included an 8-year-old girl who died in random gunfire from a security checkpoint in the Houla district.
A key Syrian opposition group declared Homs a "disaster area" and appealed for international intervention to protect civilians and for sending Arab and international observers to oversee the situation on the ground.
"For the fifth consecutive day, the Syrian regime is imposing a brutal siege on the brave city of Homs, aiming to break the will of its residents who have dared to reject the regime's authority," the Syrian National Council said in a statement on Monday.
The group said the latest siege was preventing medical supplies and food from getting into Homs and preventing families from moving to safer areas.
Violence in Syria has continued unabated, though Damascus agreed to an Arab-brokered peace plan to halt its crackdown on the uprising that the U.N. says has left 3,000 people dead.
The violence prompted Qatar's prime minister to call for an emergency meeting Saturday to discuss the Syrian government's failure to abide by its commitments.
Egypt's official news agency MENA reported Sunday that Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani called for the meeting "in light of the continuing acts of violence and the Syrian government's noncompliance" with the terms of the Arab plan.
Under the Arab League plan, Syria's government agreed to pull tanks and armored vehicles out of cities, release political prisoners and allow journalists and rights groups into the country.
Arab League deputy secretary general Ahmed bin Heli told reporters Monday that the League had received a message from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem about "measures adopted by the Syrian government to implement the Arab league plan to solve the Syrian crisis."
BEIRUT -- The death toll from the eight-month Syrian uprising has reached 3,500, the U.N. said Tuesday, as activists on the ground reported that fresh attacks by Syrian troops killed two people in a rebellious central city where the military has struggled to consolidate control.
The toll provided by the U.N. human rights office is based on figures gathered outside the country, and includes dozens killed since the brokering of a peace plan by the Arab League last week and during a major Muslim holiday on Sunday.
After the uprising against President Bashar Assad erupted in mid-March, inspired by the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, the government has largely sealed off the country from foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting, but amateur videos posted online and details gathered by activist groups have been filtering out.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva that "more than 60 people are reported to have been killed by Syrian security forces since Syria signed the peace plan" sponsored by the Arab League. She said the latest tally also includes 19 killed on Sunday during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice.
The U.N. figures are conservative and based on "credible sources on the ground" though the agency itself has no one posted in the country, Shamdasani said.
As the U.N. tally came out, Syrian activist Salim al-Homsi, based in the rebellious central city of Homs, said a man and a woman were killed by security forces' fire Tuesday morning in the city's neighborhood of Baba Amr.
Violence in Homs has spiraled out of government control with the presence of anti-regime military defectors resisting a weeklong government offensive.
Al-Homsi said troops control large sections of the district after the defectors pulled out, but security forces were still conducting raids and operations in other areas. Electricity, water and phone lines to Baba Amr have been cut for a week.
"They think they can control Baba Amr like they did other areas but they are wrong, we are not afraid of them," he told The Associated Press by phone. "We will keep protesting."
The regime is scrambling to clear out Baba Amr, a major center of resistance and reprisal, as Damascus faces potential fallout from the Arab League for defying a peace plan brokered by the 22-nation body with persistent violence.
According to activists, more than 110 people have been reported killed in the past week in Homs, Syria's third-largest city, including more than 40 from Baba Amr. Syrian activists and rights groups often give conflicting casualty figures, and the discrepancy in the death toll with the U.N. figures could not be immediately reconciled.
The government reportedly has been facing strong resistance from army defectors who have taken refuge in the Baba Amr and surrounding areas in Homs, which has a population of some 800,000 and is some 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the capital, Damascus.
An amateur video posted online Tuesday showed a small group of alleged defectors from the group known as the Syrian Free army driving through Baba Amr on Monday with automatic rifles and shoulder-carried RPGs.
"We are here to protect the peaceful, unarmed protesters in Baba Amr," said a soldier who identified himself as a member of the Al-Farouk brigade. "We will teach them a hard lesson," he said, referring to the military offensive.
A key opposition group, the Syrian National Council, declared Homs a "disaster area" on Monday and appealed for international intervention to protect civilians and for sending Arab and international observers to oversee the situation on the ground.
