U.S. closes embassy as fighting rages in Syria

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Re: U.S. closes embassy as fighting rages in Syria

Syria: Bashar al Assad vows to crush 'terrorism' in new campaign of fear
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10:58AM GMT 06 Mar 2012
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Soldiers in tanks and armoured carriers stormed the town of Herak in the province of Daraa, while army deserters clashed with troops overnight in villages of Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog also reported that troops backed by tanks circled the town of Tibet al-Imam in the central province of Hama and sent artillery shells crashing into Maaret al-Numan city in northwestern Idlib province.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP in Beirut that Syrian forces Tuesday also bombed a bridge used to evacuate the wounded and refugees to Lebanon from the central flashpoint province of Homs.
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Hadi Abdallah, a Syrian activist in Homs, said the bridge was used last week to transport wounded French reporter Edith Bouvier out of Homs, which has been the target of a fierce assault by regime forces.

"The bridge was hit by artillery shells," said Abdallah, reached by telephone from Beirut. "It can no longer be used."

The International Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, negotiated for a fourth day Tuesday with Syrian authorities to be allowed to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded from the battered Baba Amr rebel district of the city of Homs.
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It also emerged that new efforts by the UN to condemn Assad are set to be blocked by Russia for the third time.
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UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said Damascus has finally approved a visit, to take place from Wednesday to Friday.

The aim of her visit would be "to urge all parties to allow unhindered access for humanitarian relief workers so that they can evacuate the wounded and deliver essential supplies," she said.

Full text:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-crush-terrorism-in-new-campaign-of-fear.html

 

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Re: U.S. closes embassy as fighting rages in Syria

Hospital medical staff torture patients in Syrian city Homs
From: Channel4News | Mar 6, 2012 |

<IFRAME height=315 src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y1Ra9Smc-E4?rel=0" frameBorder=0 width=560 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>

Exclusive Channel 4 News footage shows medical staff torturing patients in their beds at the military hospital in Homs.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Channel4News

UN responds to Syrian hospital torture claims
Published on Mar 5, 2012 by Channel4News

<IFRAME height=315 src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JPJjJh7QkVg?rel=0" frameBorder=0 width=560 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>


The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees Navi Pillay responds to Channel 4 News footage showing medical staff torturing patients in Homs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPJjJh7QkVg

 

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Re: U.S. closes embassy as fighting rages in Syria

Syria faces outrage; "smell of death" in Homs

By Dominic Evans
BEIRUT | Tue Mar 6, 2012 1:42pm EST

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad faced growing Western anger Tuesday for preventing aid from entering a devastated district of Homs and over accusations of human rights abuses, including pictures said to show torture victims at a hospital in the city.

Dozens of men, women and children returned on foot to Baba Amr, state television said, passing bullet-pocked and damaged buildings, days after rebel fighters pulled out after a sustained and heavy military assault.

The Red Cross was awaiting approval to distribute aid to the devastated district which endured a month of siege.

Residents who fled the district spoke of bodies decomposing under rubble, sewage mixing with litter in the streets, and a campaign of arrests and executions.

"The smell of death was everywhere. We could smell the bodies buried under the rubble all the time," said Ahmad, who escaped to Lebanon. "We saw so much death that at the end the sight of a dismembered body ... stopped moving us."

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/06/us-syria-idUSTRE8220CI20120306

 

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Re: U.S. closes embassy as fighting rages in Syria

More Violence in Syria as Forces Scramble to Scrub Signs of Assault on

HomsBy NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: March 6, 2012
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Mr. Assad?s government seemed determined to scrub as many signs of its monthlong assault as possible from Homs before showing it to the world. But reports of violent mopping-up operations continued to filter out from the city, especially widespread arrests and periodic executions, mostly of young men.

?The government has control over Homs again,? said a 50-year-old Homs resident who had managed to flee to safety in Beirut. ?They are arresting many people.?

Empty buses were seen moving into neighborhoods, then leaving filled with young men and boys, she said. A grainy, shaky video of soldiers walloping young men as they pushed them onto what appeared to be a green military bus was shown on Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel, but it was not clear where or when the footage had been taken.
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A convoy bearing aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross was blocked from entering the embattled Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs for a fifth day, while Syrian state television boasted about the immense cleanup operation.

Full text:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/world/middleeast/united-nations-resolution-on-syria.html

 

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Re: U.S. closes embassy as fighting rages in Syria

Syrian crackdown ongoing despite high-level defection

<!--endclickprintinclude--><!--startclickprintexclude--><!--no partner-->By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 8:12 AM EST, Thu March 8, 2012


(CNN) -- Shelling and explosions rocked several Syrian cities early Thursday, leaving at least 10 dead, a day after a high-ranking official apparently resigned to join the uprising.

A man identifying himself as Abdo Hussam el Din, the country's deputy oil minister, announced in a video posted on YouTube Wednesday that he was defecting from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"I am joining the revolution of this noble people who will not accept injustice," the man said in Arabic. "I've been part of this government for 33 years, and I have acquired many titles, and I do not want to retire serving the crimes of this regime."
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The U.N.'s Valerie Amos surveyed the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs Wednesday for only 45 minutes while gunfire was heard from other areas of the city, officials said.

"Valerie told me on the phone from Damascus this afternoon that the areas of Baba Amr that she saw were devastated," said spokeswoman Amanda Pitt of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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"The regime's refusal to allow humanitarian workers to help feed the hungry, tend to the injured (and) bury the dead marks a new low," Clinton said in Washington. "Tons of food and medicine are standing by while more civilians die and the regime launches new assaults. This is unacceptable."

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http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/08/world/meast/syria-unrest/

 

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Re: U.S. closes embassy as fighting rages in Syria

Syria: Witnesses Describe Idlib Destruction, Killings

One Year On, Indiscriminate Attacks Inflicting Heavy Toll

March 15, 2012

(New York) ? Accounts from witnesses reveal significant destruction and a large number of deaths and injuries of civilians in Syria?s bombardment of the city of Idlib, Human Rights Watch said today. On the anniversary of the Syrian uprising, Human Rights Watch urged Russia and China to agree to a UN Security Council resolution calling on Syria to halt the indiscriminate attacks on cities and demand access for humanitarian workers, journalists, and human rights monitors.

Idlib is the latest opposition stronghold to come under attack by the Syrian security forces attempting to rout the armed opposition. Syrian activists have compiled a list of 114 civilians killed since the current assault there, which began on March 10, 2012. Five witnesses, including three foreign correspondents, gave separate accounts to Human Rights Watch that government forces used large-caliber machine-guns, tanks, and mortars to fire indiscriminately at buildings and people in the street. After they entered Idlib, government forces detained people in house-to-house searches, looted buildings, and burned down houses, the witnesses said.

?City after city, town after town, Syria?s security forces are using their scorched earth methods while the Security Council?s hands remain tied by Russia and China,? said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. ?One year on, the Security Council should finally stand together and send a clear message to Assad that these attacks should end.?

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http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/15/syria-witnesses-describe-idlib-destruction-killings