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Deaths reported as Syrian forces storm Baniyas
[Al Jazeera] Syrian security forces have conducted a raid on Baniyas, a hub of anti-government protests, amid demands by opponents of Bashir  al-Assad, the Syrian president, that he offer elections to end the crisis.A Syrian rights campaigner told the AFP news agency that security forces killed four women who were among about 150 people demonstrating on Saturday on the main coastal highway from Marqab village, near Baniyas, calling for the release of jugged people. "Members of the security forces asked them to leave and, when they refused to do so, they opened fire killing three of them and wounding five others who were hospitalised," the activist said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group, said security forces killed at least two others during the tank-backed army attack on Baniyas and demanded that authorities allow an independent committee to investigate the deaths. The Syrian military confirmed that it conducted an operation in Baniyas, a Mediterranean coastal city of 50,000 people, on Saturday. "Army units and security forces today pursued members of terrorist groups in and around Baniyas and neighbourhoods of [the southern flashpoint town of] Deraa to restore security and stability," the military official said. "They tossed in the calaboose people and seized a quantity of weapons that these groups have used to attack the army and citizens and scare people." The attack came just hours after the US, reacting to the death of 27 protesters on Friday, threatened to take new steps against Syria's rulers, drawn mostly from the Alawite sect, unless "they stopped killing and harassing their people". The army entered Baniyas from three directions, advancing into Sunni districts but not Alawite neighbourhoods, the rights campaigner said. Rights activists said residents of Baniyas formed human chains in a desperate bid to halt the military operation when it began around dawn. Most communication with Baniyas has been cut but the Syrian rights campaigner said he was able to contact several residents. "Residents are reporting the sound of heavy gunfire and seeing Syrian navy boats off the Baniyas coast. Sunni and mixed neighbourhoods are totally besieged now," the campaigner said. 'Search operation' Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the Rooters news agency that regular army units were present in the centre of Baniyas but the authorities had sent special units into the northern side of the city. "They are conducting search operation in several areas. The army has lists and looking for people based on it," he said. "They have raided Baida, Basateen and the Baseya suburbs." Sawasiah, another Syrian rights group, said in a statement that landline, internet and cellphone lines with Baniyas were cut as army units backed by tanks swept into its districts. Posted by: Fred 2011-05-08 |
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