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BEIRUT -- An activist group accused the Syrian regime on Thursday of torturing hundreds of people to death in overcrowded prisons, jails and illegal detention centers across the country since an uprising began in March.
Avaaz, an online global activist group, issued a report saying 617 people have been confirmed killed under torture by President Bashar Assad's forces as they cracked down on the revolt.
"Assad's henchmen have tried to break the pro-democracy movement in these torture chambers, but brave Syrians are still standing up for their rights," said Stephanie Brancaforte, Campaign Director at Avaaz.
The alleged torture victims are among 6,874 people killed since the uprising began, Avaaz said, giving a significantly higher toll than the estimate of 5,000 given several weeks ago by the United Nations.
Avaaz said it verified each death by three independent sources, including a family member of the deceased and the imam who performed the funeral procession. The group said it works with a team of 58 human rights monitors in Syria.
The group encouraged Arab League monitors in the country to "visit these torture chambers and ensure the regime immediately end these atrocities."
Syria generally does not respond to criticism about its human rights record. But the regime has long contended that the turmoil this year is not an uprising by reform-seekers but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs. Most international observers dismiss that claim as an attempt by an autocratic regime to terrify its citizens into abandoning the revolt.
Avaaz's figures are impossible to independently confirm, with Assad's regime continuing to bar almost all foreign journalists or human rights groups from entering Syria.
Syrian state-TV reported Thursday that authorities have released more than 500 prisoners accused of involvement in anti-regime activities. The move appeared to be another gesture to comply with an Arab League plan to end the regime's 9-month-old crackdown on dissent.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said this week that Syria had released about 3,500 detainees in recent weeks. And state television said Thursday another 552 had been released.
But Avaaz said Thursday that 37,000 people remain in detention.
The Arab peace plan, being monitored by about 100 Arab League observers now in Syria, requires Assad's regime to remove security forces and heavy weapons from cities, start talks with opposition leaders and free political prisoners. The League claims it has won some concessions from Syria, including the pullout of heavy military weaponry from cities and the release of thousands of prisoners.
However, Syria's opposition is accusing the regime of misleading the monitors by taking them to areas loyal to the government, changing street signs to confuse them, painting army vehicles blue to look like those of police and sending supporters into rebellious neighborhoods to give false testimony.
An Arab League official said the observers have not reported or complained about being misled by the regime. He said the Syrian opposition is making pre-emptive statements, fearing the regime might try to mislead the monitors.
BEIRUT (AP) - An activist group accused the Syrian regime on Thursday of torturing hundreds of people to death in overcrowded prisons, jails and illegal detention centers across the country since an uprising began in March.
Avaaz, an online global activist group, issued a report saying 617 people have been confirmed killed under torture by President Bashar Assad's forces as they cracked down on the revolt.
"Assad's henchmen have tried to break the pro-democracy movement in these torture chambers, but brave Syrians are still standing up for their rights," said Stephanie Brancaforte, Campaign Director at Avaaz.
The alleged torture victims are among 6,874 people killed since the uprising began, Avaaz said, giving a significantly higher toll than the estimate of 5,000 given several weeks ago by the United Nations.
The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group that tracks the deaths in Syria, said up to 20 people were killed in Thursday violence.
In its report, Avaaz said it verified each death by three independent sources, including a family member of the deceased and the imam who performed the funeral procession. The group said it works with a team of 58 human rights monitors in Syria.
The group encouraged Arab League monitors in the country to "visit these torture chambers and ensure the regime immediately end these atrocities."
Syria generally does not respond to criticism about its human rights record. But the regime has long contended that the turmoil this year is not an uprising by reform-seekers but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs. Most international observers dismiss that claim as an attempt by an autocratic regime to terrify its citizens into abandoning the revolt.
Avaaz's figures are impossible to independently confirm, with Assad's regime continuing to bar almost all foreign journalists or human rights groups from entering Syria.
Syrian state-TV reported Thursday that authorities have released more than 500 prisoners accused of involvement in anti-regime activities. The move appeared to be another gesture to comply with an Arab League plan to end the regime's 9-month-old crackdown on dissent.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said this week that Syria had released about 3,500 detainees in recent weeks. And state television said Thursday another 552 had been released.
But Avaaz said Thursday that 37,000 people remain in detention.
The Arab peace plan, being monitored by about 100 Arab League observers now in Syria, requires Assad's regime to remove security forces and heavy weapons from cities, start talks with opposition leaders and free political prisoners. The League claims it has won some concessions from Syria, including the pullout of heavy military weaponry from cities and the release of thousands of prisoners.
However, Syria's opposition is accusing the regime of misleading the monitors by taking them to areas loyal to the government, changing street signs to confuse them, painting army vehicles blue to look like those of police and sending supporters into rebellious neighborhoods to give false testimony.
An Arab League official said the observers have not reported or complained about being misled by the regime. He said the Syrian opposition is making pre-emptive statements, fearing the regime might try to mislead the monitors.
CAIRO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - The Arab League urged the Syrian government on Sunday to stop its violence against protesters and allow Arab monitors in the country to work more independently, but stopped short of asking for United Nations experts to bolster its peace mission.
The arrival last month of Arab monitors in Syria to see if the government was honouring a pledge to end a crackdown on a popular revolt has not ended the violence, in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed.
After a progress meeting in Cairo on Sunday, the Arab League group on Syria said the government had only partly implemented a promise to stop the crackdown, free those jailed during the crisis and withdraw its troops from the cities.
In its closing communique, the League said it would increase the number of monitors from the present 165 and give them more resources, ignoring calls to end what pro-democracy campaigners say is a toothless mission that buys more time for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to suppress opponents.
Arab League officials said the continuation of the mission, which is due to make a full report on Jan. 19, depends on the Syrian government's commitment to ending violence and honouring its promises. Arab League foreign ministers will discuss the findings on Jan. 19-20.
"If the ... report comes out saying the violence has not stopped, the Arab League will have a responsibility to act on that ... We have to be clear and honest with the Syrian people," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told a news conference after the meeting.
He did not say what the Arab League might do, but Assad's failure to abide by the peace plan resulted in Syria's suspension from the 22-member regional body in November.
The Arab plan also called for Assad's government to permit peaceful protests, start dialogue with political opponents and allow foreign media to travel freely to the country. Syria agreed, but the pledge remains unfulfilled.
Qatar, which chairs the group and has been critical of the mission's performance, had proposed inviting U.N. technicians and human rights experts to help Arab monitors assess whether Syria was honouring its pledges. The League said it had not asked for monitors.
"We have not yet agreed to send individuals," Sheikh Hamad said. Asked if this could happen in the future, he said: "it depends on how events develop."
Arab League's Syria Meeting Begins
CAIRO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - The Arab League urged the Syrian government on Sunday to stop its violence against protesters and allow Arab monitors in the country to work more independently, but stopped short of asking for United Nations experts to bolster its peace mission.
The arrival last month of Arab monitors in Syria to see if the government was honouring a pledge to end a crackdown on a popular revolt has not ended the violence, in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed.
After a progress meeting in Cairo on Sunday, the Arab League group on Syria said the government had only partly implemented a promise to stop the crackdown, free those jailed during the crisis and withdraw its troops from the cities.
In its closing communique, the League said it would increase the number of monitors from the present 165 and give them more resources, ignoring calls to end what pro-democracy campaigners say is a toothless mission that buys more time for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to suppress opponents.
Arab League officials said the continuation of the mission, which is due to make a full report on Jan. 19, depends on the Syrian government's commitment to ending violence and honouring its promises. Arab League foreign ministers will discuss the findings on Jan. 19-20.
"If the ... report comes out saying the violence has not stopped, the Arab League will have a responsibility to act on that ... We have to be clear and honest with the Syrian people," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told a news conference after the meeting.
He did not say what the Arab League might do, but Assad's failure to abide by the peace plan resulted in Syria's suspension from the 22-member regional body in November.
The Arab plan also called for Assad's government to permit peaceful protests, start dialogue with political opponents and allow foreign media to travel freely to the country. Syria agreed, but the pledge remains unfulfilled.
Qatar, which chairs the group and has been critical of the mission's performance, had proposed inviting U.N. technicians and human rights experts to help Arab monitors assess whether Syria was honouring its pledges. The League said it had not asked for monitors.
"We have not yet agreed to send individuals," Sheikh Hamad said. Asked if this could happen in the future, he said: "it depends on how events develop."
Arab League's Syria Meeting Begins
BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed Tuesday to respond to threats against him with an "iron hand" and refused to step down, insisting he still has his people's support despite the 10-month-old uprising against him.
In his first speech since June, Assad repeated claims that a foreign conspiracy and terrorists are behind the unrest - not true reform-seekers.
"Our priority now is to regain security which we basked in for decades, and this can only be achieved by hitting the terrorists with an iron hand," Assad said in a two-hour speech at Damascus University, where he stood at a podium flanked by Syrian flags. "We will not be lenient with those who work with outsiders against the country."
Assad also lashed out at the Arab League, saying the Cairo-based bloc failed to protect Arab interests. The League has suspended Syria and sent a team of monitors to assess whether the regime is abiding by an Arab-brokered peace plan that Assad agreed to on Dec. 19. The moves were humiliating for Syria, which considers itself a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.
"The Arab League failed for six decades to protect Arab interests," Assad said. "We shouldn't be surprised it's failed today."
The president has made only four public speeches since the anti-government uprising began in March, inspired by the revolutions sweeping the Arab world. The regime's crackdown on dissent has killed thousands and led to international isolation and sanctions.
Tuesday's speech differed little from his previous appearances, in that Assad struck a defiant tone and reiterated claims of conspiracy.
Assad, 46, inherited power 11 years ago from his father and has adopted tactics similar to those of other autocratic leaders in the region who scrambled to put down popular uprisings by offering claims of conspiracy while unleashing a crackdown on their people.
The formula failed in Tunisia and Egypt, where popular demands increased almost daily - until people accepted nothing less than the ouster of the regime. But Syria's conflict has gone on far longer, and the death toll is mounting daily.
"We will declare victory soon," Assad said. "When I leave this post, it will be also based upon the people's wishes," he added.
Regime opponents denounced the speech.
"Bashar is completely removed from reality, as if he is talking about a country other than Syria," said a Syria-based activist who identified himself by his nickname, Abu Hamza, because of fear of reprisals. "After 10 months of bloodshed, he comes out and talks of a foreign conspiracy."
Also Tuesday, Assad also accused hundreds of media outlets of working against Syria to "push us toward ... collapse."
"They failed, but they have not given up," he said in the speech, which was broadcast live on state television.
Since the start of the uprising, Assad has blamed a conspiracy and media fabrications for the unrest - allegations that the opposition and most observers dismiss. The regime has banned most foreign news outlets and prevented independent reporting.
In recent months, Syria's conflict has turned increasingly violent as army defectors turn their weapons on the regime and some protesters take up arms to protect themselves.
Syria agreed in December to an Arab League-brokered plan that calls for an end to the military crackdown on protesters, but killings have continued.
About 165 Arab League monitors are in Syria to determine whether the regime is abiding by the plan to stop violence and pull heavy weapons out of the cities.
The U.N. estimated several weeks ago that more than 5,000 people have been killed since March. Since that report, opposition activists say hundreds more have died.
Adnan al-Khudeir, head of the Cairo operations room that the monitors report to, said more observers will head to Syria in the coming days and the delegation should reach 200. He said the mission then will expand its work in Syria to reach the eastern province of Deir el-Zour and predominantly Kurdish areas to the northeast.
UNITED NATIONS -- An estimated 400 people have been killed in Syria since an Arab League mission arrived in the country to monitor the uprising against the government of President Bashar Assad, a top U.N. official said Tuesday.
United Nations political chief B. Lynn Pascoe provided the latest figures in a closed-door report to the 15-member Security Council on the Syrian uprising that has already claimed more than 5,000 lives since it began almost 10 months ago, diplomats said.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the rate of killings, an average of 40 a day, was even higher than before the monitors arrived.
"That is a clear indication that the government of Syria, rather than using the opportunity of its commitment to the Arab League to end the violence and fulfill all of its commitments under the protocol is instead stepping up the violence, despite the presence of monitors, and carrying out further acts of brutality against its population, even often in the presences of those monitors," Rice said, calling on Assad to step down and make way for a more democratic regime.
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari blamed the killings on incitement by western powers.
"These victims are falling in Syria because of those who are still insisting on instigating and inciting violence. And I am sure you have heard a lot of these incitement calls from the same countries, from the same representatives who have just spoken to you," Ja'afari told reporters following comments by Rice and the ambassadors from Britain, France and Germany.
"Allow me to remind you that a couple of weeks ago, the spokesperson of the (U.S.) State Department advised the Syrian armed groups not to give up their weapons and not to engage in the nation dialogue," he added.
Western nations and the U.S. are demanding a resolution and threatening sanctions if the violence doesn't stop and condemning Assad's crackdown.
But Russia and China, which have closer ties to Assad's regime, believe extremist opponents of the government are equally responsible for the bloodshed and oppose any mention of sanctions.
On Tuesday, western diplomats accused Russia of stalling after introducing a draft resolution at the end of December that many here felt was insufficient.
"Unfortunately, after a bit of show last month of tabling a resolution, the Russians are inexplicably AWOL in terms of leading negotiations on the text of that resolution," Rice said.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin denied any stalling, saying his country was working on the draft resolution "all the time," but added "members of the council continue to remain rather far apart."
JERUSALEM Israels military chief said on Tuesday that the army was preparing for a potential influx of refugees into the Golan Heights from Syria with the demise of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which he said was inevitable.
Addressing a closed meeting of the Israeli Parliaments Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the chief, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, said that Israel was preparing to absorb the refugees in a buffer zone between Syria and the Golan, a strategic area that Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war, and which remains an area of disputed sovereignty. The plans included defensive measures and humanitarian assistance for those in flight, including thousands from the ruling Alawite sect, the small minority to which Mr. Assad belongs.
I am not sure all the Alawites will run toward Israel, General Gantz was quoted as saying, but he said he could not rule out the possibility that some would. He added that Mr. Assad could not continue to rule Syria, but he did not specify how much longer he thought the Assad government would survive.
Israel has tried to keep a low profile and not take sides in the struggle in Syria, a country that is hostile to Israel, but officials here have been increasingly open in their assessment that the Assad government is in dire straits.
The defense minister, Ehud Barak, told the same parliamentary committee on Jan. 2 that the Assad familys prospects were worsening. Though it is difficult to put an exact date on when the government will fall, the trend is clear, and every day that passes brings the government closer to its end, Mr. Barak said, according to a statement from his office. He added, The cracks in the Syrian leadership are deepening, the economic situation is deteriorating and the military is having a hard time dealing with the opposition and the army deserters.
Despite the uncertainty about who will take over in Syria in the event of a government collapse, and about the ascendancy of Islamic parties in other countries in the region, many Israeli officials and analysts said they would not shed any tears over Mr. Assads demise. Instead, Israel sees a potential benefit, saying that the collapse of his government would deal a severe blow to the radical axis of enemies, including Iran, the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups like Hamas.
Though Syria has mostly maintained quiet along its frontier with Israel for more than 30 years, it has forged an alliance with Iran and provided vital support to Hezbollah.
Israel has held inconclusive negotiations with Syria in the past for a peace treaty based on the return of the Golan Heights, which it conquered in the 1967 war. Israel has extended its law to the area, but for the 20,000 or so Syrians of the Druze religious sect who live there, it remains Syrian territory. Most refused to take Israeli citizenship, and might not tolerate thousands of Alawites trekking through their territory.
A more likely spot is the village of Ghajar, which straddles Israels frontier with Lebanon, sits close to the Syrian border and is home to more than 2,000 members of the Alawite sect. The village came under Israeli control along with the Golan Heights. When Israel annexed the area in 1981, the villagers chose to become Israeli citizens.
The Golan poses other potential problems for Syrian refugees. The border area became a scene of deadly confrontation last year when Israeli forces shot pro-Palestinian protesters from Syria as they tried to breach the frontier and enter Israeli-controlled territory twice in three weeks. As many as 26 protesters were killed.
The Syrian TV channel Addounia.tv released footage on Wednesday claiming to show the aftermath of a grenade attack in Homs that killed French journalist Gilles Jacquier and injured several others. France-2 Television cameraman and award-winning journalist Jacquier was killed during a government-authorized tour of Syria's restive city.
BEIRUT, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A Syrian rebel army chief urged the world on Tuesday to protect civilians in Syria, saying Arab peace monitors had failed to curb President Bashar al-Assad's violent response to a 10-month-old revolt against his rule.
Big powers have also proved unable to stop the bloodshed in Syria, where U.N. officials say more than 5,000 people have been killed and Damascus says its security forces have lost 2,000 dead.
Riad al-Asaad, Turkish-based commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, called for international intervention to replace the Arab observer mission, which has just days to run.
"The Arab League and their monitors failed in their mission and though we respect and appreciate our Arab brothers for their efforts, we think they are incapable of improving conditions in Syria or resisting this regime," he told Reuters by telephone.
"For that reason we call on them to turn the issue over to the U.N. Security Council and we ask that the international community intervene because they are more capable of protecting Syrians at this stage than our Arab brothers," Asaad said.
Iran condemned what it called foreign interference in the affairs of its closest Arab ally, Syria, and praised reforms President Assad has promised as "problem-solving".
"We are fundamentally against interfering in the affairs of other countries. We think it does not solve the problems but will only make them more complicated," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference.
Assad, while proffering reform, has vowed to crush his opponents with an "iron fist", but Syrians braving bullets and torture chambers appear equally determined to add him to the list of the past year's toppled Arab leaders.
Army deserters and other rebels have taken up arms against security forces dominated by Assad's minority Alawite sect, pushing Sunni Muslim-majority Syria closer to civil war.
BEIRUT Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent.
It was one of Moscow's strongest statements of support yet for authoritarian Syrian President Bashar Assad. And as one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Russia can veto any council resolution that would authorize military intervention in Syria.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country's draft of a U.N. Security Council resolution on the violence in Syria, which was circulated at the U.N. on Monday, aimed to make it explicitly clear that nothing could justify foreign military interference. However, Western diplomats said the draft fell short of their demand for strong condemnation of Assad's crackdown on civilians.
"If some intend to use force at all cost ... we can hardly prevent that from happening," Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow. "But let them do it at their own initiative on their own conscience. They won't get any authorization from the U.N. Security Council."
Russia has been a strong ally of Syria since Soviet times, when the country was led by the president's father Hafez Assad. Nevertheless, Russian officials last fall hosted prominent Syrian opposition leaders in Moscow in a bid to sponsor talks.
Syria's regime has grown increasingly isolated over the past 10 months as it waged a brutal military crackdown on an anti-government uprising inspired by the Arab Spring revolts across the region. The U.N. says the violence has killed more than 5,400 people since March.
The Security Council has been unable to agree on a resolution since the violence began because of strong opposition from Russia and China, another permanent, veto-wielding member of the Security Council. In October, both countries vetoed a West European draft resolution backed by the U.S. that condemned Assad's attacks and threatened sanctions.
As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani near the border with Lebanon, which has come under the control of army defectors. They said living conditions were deteriorating there after six days of a military siege.
There have been several other instances when the opposition or defectors have gained control of a town or city, but ultimately the Syrian military recaptured them.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Zabadani was hit with heavy machine gun fire early Wednesday.
A resident and activist in Zabadani described the town as a "war zone." He said dozens of anti-government army defectors are deployed at the entrances to prevent any attempt by forces loyal to Assad to storm the area.
The man, who identified himself only as Fares for fear of government reprisal, told The Associated Press by phone that the town was shelled with mortars shortly before noon Wednesday. He added that two security buildings inside Zabadani are still under government control but there have not been any clashes with the forces there.
Fares said food is running out and fuel for heating is very scarce in Zabadani, where it snowed earlier this week.
The anti-Assad revolt, which began as a peaceful uprising by mostly civilian, unarmed protesters has turned increasingly militarized in recent months with growing numbers of army defectors who clash with troops.
The Observatory said there were also clashes between defectors and regular troops in the northwestern province of Idlib, near the border with Turkey. It added that security forces shot dead a civilian in the province.
The Russian foreign minister also addressed reports that a Russian ship had recently delivered munitions to Syria in violation of a European Union arms embargo. He said Russia doesn't feel a need to explain or offer excuses.
MOSCOW -- Russia has signed a contract to sell combat jets to Syria, a newspaper reported Monday, in apparent support for President Bashar Assad and open defiance of international condemnation of his regime's bloody crackdown.
The respected business daily Kommersant, citing an unidentified source close to Russia's Rosoboronexport state arms trader, said the $550-million deal envisions the delivery of 36 Yak-130 aircraft. A spokesman for Rosoboronexport refused to comment on the report.
If confirmed, the deal would cement Russian opposition to international efforts to put pressure on Assad's regime over its attempts to snuff out the country's uprising. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have died over 10 months. The report of the sale comes the same day that Human Rights Watch called Russia's backing of the Syrian regime "immoral."
The Yak-130 is a twin-engined combat trainer jet that can also be used to attack ground targets. The Russian air force has recently placed an order for 55 such jets.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Moscow doesn't consider it necessary to offer an explanation or excuses over suspicions that a Russian ship had delivered munitions to Syria despite an EU arms embargo.
Russia was acting in full respect of international law and wouldn't be guided by unilateral sanctions imposed by other nations, he said.
Lavrov also accused the West of turning a blind eye to attacks by opposition militants and supplies of weapons to the Syrian opposition from abroad and warned that Russia will block any attempt by the West to secure United Nations support for the use of force against Syria.
Russia has been a strong ally of Syria since Soviet times when the country was led by the president's father Hafez Assad. It has supplied Syria with aircraft, missiles, tanks and other modern weapons.
Igor Korotchenko, head of the Center of Analysis of the Global Arms trade, an independent think-tank, said the jet deal apparently reflected Moscow's belief that Assad would stay at the helm.
"With this contract, Russia is expressing confidence that President Assad would manage to retain control of the situation, because such deals aren't signed with a government whose hold on power raises doubts," Korotchenko was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying. "It's another gesture by Moscow underlining its confidence that Damascus will remain its strategic partner and ally in the Middle East."
Another Moscow-based military analyst, Ruslan Pukhov, said, however, that Russia might be too optimistic about Assad's prospects.
"This contract carries a very high degree of risk," Pukhov told Kommersant. "Assad's regime may fall and that would lead to financial losses for Russia and also hurt its image."
Human Rights Watch warned Russia that by supporting Assad it is repeating the mistakes of some Western governments during the Arab Spring, saying they were too slow to recognize the popular desire for democratic change in places like Egypt and Bahrain.
"Armed elements shooting at government soldiers is materially different from government representatives shooting deliberately at unarmend civilians," Carroll Bogert, the group's deputy executive director, said at a news conference in Moscow that followed the release of HRW's annual report.
The U.S. is considering closing its embassy in Damascus amid concerns about the security of the staff there, The Huffington Post has confirmed.
The Washington Post and Foreign Policy magazine first reported Friday afternoon that American officials have been in discussions with the regime of Bashar al-Assad regarding security arrangements around the U.S. embassy.
A U.S. official told the Post that the Obama administration will close the embassy and evacuate all personnel unless the Assad regime provides enhanced protection.
American officials recently scaled down the presence of U.S. diplomats at the embassy in Damascus.
The embassy came under attack in July by protesters thought to be affiliated with the government, and the U.S. ambassador was briefly recalled to the United States in October, amid growing diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
Nevertheless, State Department officials have repeatedly defended their decision to send an ambassador to Syria in the first place and to keep the embassy fully functioning amid the unfolding turmoil in the country. They have said that having a diplomatic presence there allows the U.S. to best express its political views to the regime, and to understand conditions on the ground.
The reports come as a highly controversial Arab League observer mission to Syria was said to be considering extending its mission by another month, despite complaints by Syrian protesters that the mission failed to quell violence or government attacks on demonstrations.
A U.S. official told Reuters that the administration has made no final decision yet. "We want something to happen sooner rather than later," the official said.
The U.N. estimates that at least 5,400 people have died in the Syrian regime's crackdown on an uprising that began last March.
BEIRUT With Arab pressure mounting to end 10 months of bloodshed, the Syrian regime vowed Tuesday to solve its own problems even if "half the universe" is conspiring against it.
The remarks signaled that Arab League efforts to stem the violence are collapsing something that could pave the way for the U.N. Security Council to step in, even though Russia is firmly opposed to punitive measures against its longtime ally.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem brushed off the threat of referring the issue to the Security Council a move that could lead to tougher sanctions rather than trying to resolve it regionally. The prospect of U.N. involvement has raised fears in Syria that an international intervention could be next.
"If they go to (U.N. headquarters in) New York or the moon, as long as we don't pay their tickets, this is their business," al-Moallem said at a news conference in Damascus.
He was reacting to an appeal by the Gulf Cooperation Council for the U.N. Security Council to take all "necessary measures" to force Syria to implement an Arab League's ambitious peace plan announced Sunday to create a national unity government in two months. Damascus has rejected the plan as a violation of national sovereignty.
"The decision was made after careful and thorough monitoring of events in Syria and the conviction by the GCC that the bloodshed and the killing of innocent people there is continuing," the statement by the six-nation GCC said.
It also announced its six member nations Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates were withdrawing the 52 monitors they had contributed to an Arab League observer mission that has been heavily criticized for failing to stop the crackdown since it entered the country in late December. That would leave only about 110 observers on the ground, League officials said, a major blow to an effort that many see as the only hope for a regional solution to the crisis.
Several members of the 15-member council agreed Tuesday that it was time for the full group to take action.
"This council should fully support the Arab League's efforts to broker an end to the bloodshed and a peaceful transition to democracy in Syria," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said during the council's monthly debate on the Middle East.
British Ambassador to the U.N. Mark Lyall Grant expressed concern about weapons proliferation via sales to the Syrian government or illegal smuggling to the regime or opposition.
But the potential for U.N. involvement is a highly charged issue. Any resolution would have to get past veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China, which already rejected one Western-backed draft that threatened an arms embargo. The two countries argued that NATO misused a previous U.N. mandate authorizing use of force in Libya.
The U.N. estimates more than 5,400 people have been killed since Syria's uprising began in March, inspired by the wave of revolutions sweeping the Arab world. The conflict has turned more violent in recent months, as army defectors and some protesters take up arms to fight the regime's forces.
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.
Violence continued Tuesday, with an overall death toll that ranged from 15 to more than 43, based on reports from the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Local Coordination Committees and other activists on the ground.
Syria's powerful allies in Russia, China and Iran have shielded Damascus in some ways from a slew of condemnation and sanctions by the U.S., the European Union, Turkey and others.
Russia reportedly has signed a contract to sell combat jets to Syria, according to a Monday report in the business daily Kommersant. The $550-million deal is for 36 Yak-130 aircraft, according to an unidentified source close to Russia's Rosoboronexport state arms trader.
Asked about the report, Russian Middle East envoy and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said he was not up to date on the issue but insisted that Russia is not violating any international conventions.
Reporting from Damascus, Syria, and Beirut
An Arab League peace plan for Syria appeared to be near collapse Tuesday as six Persian Gulf nations announced their intention to withdraw monitors from the country and urged the United Nations Security Council to take "all needed measures" to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad to relinquish power.
The gulf monarchies, including regional giant Saudi Arabia, said in a statement that Assad's government had failed to comply with demands by the 22-member regional bloc designed to curb months of bloodshed in Syria. The six nations which also include Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates contributed 55 of the 165 monitors sent to Syria.
On Monday, Syria rejected as a "flagrant violation" of its sovereignty a proposed Arab League political road map that called for Assad to transfer power to a deputy and for the establishment of a national unity government within two months. Supervised parliamentary and presidential elections would follow, according to the proposal.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem was defiant Tuesday at a news conference in Damascus, the Syrian capital, assailing the league's political plan and denouncing "a plot against Syria" abetted by Arab nations. Syria, a close ally of Iran, has repeatedly alleged that it is the victim of a conspiracy backed by Washington and other Western nations in alliance with Arab states.
Moallem said the government has a duty to suppress what he described as armed terrorist gangs, signaling that Syrian authorities have no intention of ending a violent crackdown against a 10-month uprising.
He was dismissive of any effort to refer Syria to the Security Council, saying the Arab League could take the issue "to New York or to the moon, as long as we don't have to pay for their ticket."
Syria is counting on two Security Council allies, Russia and China, to block any U.N. effort to pressure the Assad regime. Last year, Russia and China jointly vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have condemned Damascus' crackdown on antigovernment protests.
Both Russia and China are wary of the Libya precedent, in which a U.N. resolution last year opened the way for armed Western intervention against the government of the late Moammar Kadafi. Western nations have denied any intention to intervene militarily in Syria.
"Russia will not agree on the foreign interference in Syria's internal affairs, and this is a red line," Moallem said Tuesday.
But Western and Arab diplomats have voiced the hope that Syria's rejection of the league's political demands could highlight what they call Damascus' intransigence and weaken Russian and Chinese resolve, leading to some U.N. move against the Assad regime.
BEIRUT Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascus on Thursday, rounding people up in house-to-house raids, while tens of thousands of backers of President Bashar Assad poured into the streets of several cities in a show of support for his embattled regime.
Just days after pulling out of the suburb of Douma following intense clashes with anti-regime fighters, government troops pushed back in early Thursday from all directions, meeting no resistance, activists said.
"They are entering homes, searching cars and stopping people in the streets to check identity cards," activist and Douma resident Mohammed al-Saeed told The Associated Press, saying the soldiers had lists of wanted people. "There is very little movement in the streets and nobody is allowed to leave or enter Douma."
The suburb has become a tension point in recent months, with large protests against Assad that security forces crushed by force. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 200 people were detained Thursday in Douma.
Just 10 miles (16 kilometers) away in downtown Damascus, thousands of people waved Syrian flags and shouted support for Assad a sign of the deep divisions over the country's 10-month-old uprising. Similar pro-regime rallies were held in Aleppo in the north, according to state-run media.
The Syrian revolt began last March with largely peaceful anti-government protests, but it has grown increasingly militarized in recent months as frustrated regime opponents and army defectors arm themselves and fight back against government forces.
The government crackdown has killed more than 5,400 people since March, according to estimates from the United Nations.
Assad's regime claims terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy are behind the uprising, not protesters seeking change, and that thousands of security forces have been killed.
After 10 months of violent conflict, the unrest has reached something of a stalemate with many Syrians calling for change but also fearing a descent into civil war as the country's myriad sectarian and religious groups turn on each other.
International pressure on Damascus to end the bloodshed so far has produced few results.
The Arab League has sent observers to the country as part of a plan to the end the crisis, but the mission has been widely criticized for failing to stop the violence. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission Tuesday, asking the U.N. Security Council to intervene because the Syrian government has not halted its crackdown.
Following the withdrawal of the Gulf state monitors, the observer mission is likely to draw to a close soon, despite Syria's extending the mission's mandate on Tuesday for another month, said the risk-analysis company Maplecroft.
"Despite the limited impact of the mission, violence is likely to increase as inspectors are withdrawn," the Britain-based group said. "Division amongst the armed resistance may also lead to a spike in attacks against regime forces as different factions attempt to assert authority through success on the battlefield."
Despite the calls from some Arab states for decisive action from the U.N., that prospect appears unlikely because Russia, a strong Syrian ally, has opposed moves like sanctions.
Violence, meanwhile, has continued unabated in Syria.
BEIRUT (AP) - Armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad barraged residential buildings with mortars and machine-gun fire, killing at least 30 people, including a family of women and children during a day of sectarian killings and kidnappings in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, activists said Friday.
The violence erupted Thursday, but important details were only emerging a day later. Video posted online by activists showed the bodies of five small children, five women of varying ages and a man, all bloodied and piled on beds in what appeared to be an apartment after a building was hit in the Karm el-Zaytoun neighborhood of the city. A narrator said an entire family had been "slaughtered."
The video could not be independently verified.
Heavy gunfire erupted for a second day Friday in the city, which has seen some of the heaviest violence of the 10-month-old uprising against Assad's rule. Activists said at least 10 people were killed across the country, four of them in Homs.
Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded Friday at a checkpoint outside the northern city of Idlib, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing witnesses on the ground. The number of casualties was not immediately clear.
In an attempt to stop the bloodshed in Syria, the U.N. Security Council was to hold a closed-door meeting Friday to discuss the crisis, a step toward a possible resolution against the Damascus regime, diplomats said. The U.N. says at least 5,400 people have been killed in the government crackdown since March, and the turmoil has intensified as dissident soldiers have joined the ranks of the anti-Assad protesters and carried out attacks on regime forces.
Details of Thursday's wave of killings in Homs were emerging from an array of residents and activists on Friday, though they said they were having difficulty because of continuing gunfire.
"There has been a terrifying massacre," Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AP on Friday, calling for an independent investigation of Thursday's killings.
Thursday started with a spate of sectarian kidnappings and killings between the city's population of Sunnis and Allawites, a Shiite sect to which Assad belongs and which is the backbone of his regime, said Mohammad Saleh, a centrist opposition figure and activist resident of Homs.
There were also a string of attacks by unknown gunmen on army checkpoints, Saleh said. Checkpoints are a frequent target of dissident troops who have joined the opposition.
The violence culminated with the evening killing of the family, Saleh said, adding that the full details of what happened were not yet clear.
The Observatory said 29 people were killed, including eight children, when a building came under heavy mortar and machine gun fire. Some residents spoke of another massacre that took place when shabiha - armed regime loyalists - stormed the district, slaughtering residents in an apartment, including children.
"It's racial cleansing," said one Sunni resident of Karm el-Zaytoun, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. "They are killing people because of their sect," he said.
Some residents said kidnappers were holding Alawites in the building hit by mortars and gunfire in Karm el-Zaytoun, but the reports could not be confirmed.
Thursday's death toll in Homs city was at least 35, said the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists. Both groups cite a network of activists on the ground in Syria for their death tolls. The reports could not be confirmed.
Syria tightly controls access to trouble spots and generally allows journalists to report only on escorted trips, which slows the flow of information.
The Syrian uprising began last March with largely peaceful anti-government protests, but it has grown increasingly militarized in recent months as frustrated regime opponents and army defectors arm themselves and fight back against government forces.
Claims that Iranians and Lebanese Hizballah members are aiding President Bashar Assad's troops in their ferocious crack down against dissent are almost as old as the 10-month Syrian uprising. Yet despite the thousands of amateur videos that have captured so much of the gruesome, bloody repression, precious little evidence has emerged to back the allegations of foreign assistance, beyond the assertions of antigovernment activists and the testimony of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence.
On Thursday, al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language satellite channel, broadcast amateur footage purportedly showing five of seven Iranians captured by Syrian military defectors belonging to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the besieged central city of Homs. A Syrian rebel who gave his name as Abu Bassem told the channel that the seven were nabbed by the FSA's Farouk Brigade on two separate occasions. Five of the men were allegedly Iranian soldiers, operating as snipers under the direct supervision of Syria's much feared Air Force Intelligence branch in Homs, Bassem told al-Jazeera in a phone call from the city, while the other two were civilians working at a local power plant in Jandar, near Homs.
Five of the men are shown in a six-minute, 20-second snippet. Bearded and cloaked in black, they sit against a white wall, with a lone rifle propped up between the second and third man. A scrolling red ticker on the screen says that they are Iranian Revolutionary Guards and calls on "all Iranian Revolutionary Guards to immediately withdraw from Syrian territory." One of the five men holds up a laminated photo identification card. The Enduring America website posted a Farsi-to-English translation of his comments: "My name is Sajjad (Haider Ali) Aminan and I am a member of the revolutionary armed forces of Iran. I am leader of a five-member special team. I entered Syria on Oct. 16, 2011. The others entered Syria on different dates."
The men then all state their names: Ahmad Aziz Askari, Hasan Hasani, Majid Qanbari, Kyumars Qobadi. One says that they have killed "many civilians in the city of Homs, including many women and children."
The footage then cuts to two laminated photo ID cards, showing their back and front, as well as three passports. The pages are flipped, one by one, including all of the blank pages.
Is this proof of Iran sending military reinforcement to prop up its main Arab ally? Or could something else be happening there? On Dec. 21, Syrian state media reported that eight foreign engineers, including five Iranians, were abducted "by terrorists" as they traveled on a company bus to their place of work, the Jandar power plant on the outskirts of Homs. The nationalities of the other three engineers were not stated. Shortly afterward, Iran's Press TV reported that "two more Iranian experts, who were trying to clarify the situation of the five abducted engineers," were kidnapped. Their whereabouts are unknown. On Jan. 2, an unknown group called the Movement Against the Expansion of Shiism in Syria sent a claim of responsibility for the abductions to the Agence France-Presse office in Nicosia, Cyprus.
The men in the video bear a resemblance to the five engineers abducted in December, as portrayed in a photo circulated in the Syrian and Iranian press. Their names also appear to match. The men, who are all dressed casually in jeans, jackets and track pants pose alongside a man identified as their Syrian cook. They are not the only Iranians nabbed in Syria. "Eleven Iranian pilgrims traveling by road to Damascus were kidnapped by an unknown group," Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying on Thursday by the state news agency IRNA. "We call on the Syrian government to use all means ... to release the Iranian nationals," he said.
AMMAN/BEIRUT, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Syrian soldiers killed 19 people in fighting to retake Damascus suburbs from rebels on Sunday, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of mounting violence.
Around 2,000 soldiers in buses and armoured personnel carriers, along with at least 50 tanks and armoured vehicles, moved at dawn into the Ghouta area on the eastern edge of Damascus to reinforce an offensive in the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna, activists said.
The army pushed into the heart of Kfar Batna and four tanks were in its central square, they said, in a move to flush out rebels who had taken over districts just a few kilometres from President Bashar al-Assad's centre of power.
"It's urban war. There are bodies in the street," said one activist, speaking from Kfar Batna. Activists said 14 civilians and five insurgents from the rebel Free Syrian Army were killed there and in other suburbs.
The Arab League suspended the work of its monitors on Saturday after calling on Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity. It said Arab foreign ministers would discuss the Syrian crisis on Feb. 5.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby left for New York on Sunday where he will brief representatives of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to seek support for an Arab peace plan that calls on Assad to step aside after 10 months of protests.
He will be joined by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country heads the league's committee charged with overseeing Syria.
Speaking shortly before he left Cairo for New York, Elaraby said he hoped to overcome resistance from China and Russia over endorsing the Arab proposals. "There are contacts with China and Russia on this issue," he said.
A Syrian government official was quoted by state media as saying Syria was surprised by the decision to suspend operations, which would "put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence."
Assad blames the violence on foreign-backed militants.
