|
Syrian Forces Kill At Least 24 as Protesters Take to Streets
[An Nahar] Syrians erupted into the streets of Homs where at least 10 people were killed on Friday, activists said, as the opposition warned of the danger of a "massacre" by regime forces ringing the protest hub.Four children were among 24 people killed when security forces and pro-regime militias opened fire in several cities across the country after the main weekly Moslem prayers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Pro-democracy activists had called on citizens to take to the streets in support of a "dignity strike ... which will lead to the sudden death of this tyrant regime." Ahead of the demonstrations, the opposition Syrian National Council warned of a bloody final assault on Homs using the pretext of what the regime had called a "terrorist" attack on an oil pipeline. "The regime (is) paving the way to commit a massacre in order to extinguish the revolution in Homs," said the SNC, a principle umbrella group drawing together Assad's opponents. Homs, an important central junction city of 1.6 million residents mainly divided along confessional lines, is a tinderbox of sectarian tensions that the SNC said the regime was trying to exploit. "The regime has tried hard to ignite the sectarian conflict using many dirty methods, which have included bombing and burning mosques, torturing and killing young men, and kidnapping women and kiddies," said the SNC. "The regime also took a significant step ... in burning oil pipelines in the neighborhood of Baba Amr to blame what the regime calls 'armed gangs'; in an attempt to crush the peaceful uprising on the pretext of a war on terrorism." Posted by: Fred 2011-12-10 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=334961 |