At Least 26 Dead as Syrian Ships, Tanks Blast Latakia
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
At least 26 people were killed as the Syrian military opened fire on the Mediterranean port city of Latakia on Sunday, with warships and tanks joining the assault, activists said.
But the state-run news agency SANA denied that the navy had attacked Latakia, quoting its correspondent in there as saying security forces were battling gunmen.
Activists said four other people were killed elsewhere in the country in bloodshed that came a day after world leaders demanded an immediate end to the ruthless crushing of dissent in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement that at least 23 people were killed and dozens more wounded in the city, several critically.
But the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria (NOHRS) put the death toll in Latakia at 26, providing a list of names of those killed, and said two other people died in Homs, one in Hama and one in Idlib.
The Syrian Observatory said the vessels opened up with heavy machine-guns and the NOHRS confirmed the report, calling the attack "unprecedented."
But the official SANA news agency, quoting its Latakia correspondent, denied that naval vessels had opened fire on the city.
The agency said its correspondent "denied reports carried by some media that said Ramel (district) was shelled from the sea."
"Law enforcement members are pursuing armed men who are using machine guns, grenades and bombs in Ramel from rooftops and from behind barricades," SANA said.
The head of medical services in Latakia was quoted as saying that two members of the security forces were killed and 41 others wounded in the city "while chasing armed men."
In May, during an army operation in Banias, another port, navy ships patrolled offshore but did not open fire.
A spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA, Chris Gunness, said reports from the Ramel camp spoke of "fire from tanks which have encircled the area as well as fire from ships at sea."
He called on the Syrian authorities "to order their troops to exercise maximum restraint," and demanded "access for humanitarian workers to tend to the injured and dying."
"Poor communications make it impossible to confirm numbers of those killed and injured," Gunness said in a statement.
On Saturday, the military killed at least two people and wounded 15 others in the Ramel area of southern Latakia, a nerve center of anti-regime protests, according to the group.
"Large numbers of residents, especially women and children" have fled Ramel, the scene of mass protests calling for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, it said.
The Syrian Observatory said landline telephones and Internet connections with the eastern Mediterranean port city were cut.
Around the capital, "security forces entered Saqba and Hamriya in great numbers and launched a campaign of arrests," according to the Britain-based group.
It said troops arrived in "15 military trucks, eight troop carriers and four jeeps," launching the assault at around 2:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday). "Gunfire was heard in both suburbs," and communications severed during the operation.
Syria's human rights groups, in a joint statement, on Sunday urged the authorities to release the head of the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights, Abdul Karim Rihawi, who was arrested on Thursday in Damascus.
His detention "represents a violation of the international commitments undertaken by Syria," they said.
"Security forces are continuing mass arrests, in violation of the law, human rights and democratic freedoms, denying the rights of opposition figures and peaceful demonstrators," the groups said.
In a telephone conversation on Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama and Saudi King Abdullah expressed their "shared, deep concerns about the Syrian government's use of violence against its citizens," the White House said in a statement.
"They agreed that the Syrian regime's brutal campaign of violence against the Syrian people must end immediately."
In a separate phone call, Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron also called for an "immediate" end to the bloodshed which has raged since protests broke out in mid-March.
A spokesman for Downing Street said the two leaders "expressed horror at the brutal reaction of the Syrian regime to legitimate protests, particularly during Ramadan," the holy month in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.
The call came after Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim regional heavyweight which had remained silent on the five-month revolt, added its voice to a chorus of criticism and recalled its ambassador from Damascus.
The violence has cost more than 2,150 lives, including around 400 members of the security forces, according to rights activists. Syrian authorities have blamed the bloodshed on armed gangs and Islamist militants.
Washington has steadily ratcheted up the pressure on Damascus, imposing new sanctions and saying Assad has lost all legitimacy, but has so far stopped short of openly calling for him to step down.
Syrian troops backed by tanks have struggled to crush the revolt since pro-democracy protests turned into a full-scale uprising, despite repeated calls for restraint from world leaders.
The U.N. Security Council is due to hold a special meeting on Thursday to discuss human rights and the humanitarian emergency in Syria.
14 August 2011, 17:47
10
@ mansour, hope your wish never comes true as this would mean that Lebanon will remain the messy country we have today.
Unlike you i do not blame the Palestinians nor the Syrians for where our country is today; we only have to blame ourselves.
14 August 2011, 19:01
02
i wouldn't go so far mansour. i agree with you about some syrians committing crimes against lebanon. and the same applies to the palestinians. but you can't paint them all with the same brush. the average syrian citizen is very much like you and me. they just want to live in peace and dignity. just think what the population of syria is and how many soldiers were stationed in lebanon. it's a very small percentage. and you'll find that they're probably the same soldiers that are doing the shelling on their own people now. as lebanese people, we should feel with the syrian population that's suffering now how we suffered so many years ago and support them as much as we can. when it was happening to us, they didn't have the freedom to speak up. try and remember how they were informed of what was happening in lebanon through their state controlled television before the days of Jazeera and CNN.
it's time we overcame our narrow-mindedness...
14 August 2011, 19:46
30
Bravo the Syrian brave army And the strong young President Bashar . Kill them And save humanity And civilization from these sunnis fundamentalists fanatics from the âge of Stone .
14 August 2011, 21:48
02
Hey Le Phoneician, why do you use the word "fundamentalist" when you say sunni fund. I think you should just say "Bashar kill the sunnis" because this is what you really want and your true colors shine every day: if the Syrian regime kills 100,000 sunnis tomorrow you will clap for them, you are just like the thugs that invaded and killed people in sabra and chatila and you are a disgrace to lebanon. You are like the Serbs that committed the genocides in bosnia and you are not an inch different. Just be a man and say it. And don't worry Bashar and his thugs and people full of racial hate like you are going to have a "sad ending", russians figured it out and still idiots like you and your GMA, who can't see beyond their nose, who are full of racial hate will drown in their hate.
14 August 2011, 22:14
20
Don't get me wrong , I believe everything that SANA is reporting and every word president Assad says, everyone knows by now the Assad family is my favorite family in the wide world of sport , they always were . I've supported them since 1973 especially in Lebanon after 1977 but something keeps nagging me about the Salafis Wahhabis Sunnis fundamentalists fanatics terrorists , where are the suicide bombers that they usually use , we have yet to see one . Everywhere else in the world the Salafis Wahhabis Sunnis fundamentalists fanatics terrorists operate the suicide bombers are the most important part of their arsenal , but for some reason they don't use them in Syrian , I cant explain why . I hope the Salafis Wahhabis Sunnis fundamentalists fanatics terrorists don't start using the suicide bombers after they see my post , just to show that they are really the ones attacking the Syrian regime .
14 August 2011, 22:56
02
That is because it is largely a peaceful revolution, but you are too arrogant and too racist to see beyond your nose, your comment is self-evident, where are the fanatics?? where are the sucide bombers??? answer: your SANA (the equivalent of hitler's nazi propaganda) is full of shit, do you really think that there are thousands of armed people in Syria fighting the regime and the tanks can roll in just like that, have you ever seen one tank destroyed for instance !? all of a sudden they showed up in a country of 16 security organizations!? The matter is straightforward: protests against a brutal murderous dictator and the dictator is crushing the protests (nothing new in history). The truth is, that you so conveniently avoid, is that the likes of you have no problem in mass genocides.. and you would love to see your Bashar using chemical weapons against cities, Be a man and say it, you are a neo-nazi who would love to kill all the sunis and keep the ones alive slaves! this is the truth
14 August 2011, 23:17
02
The desperate Alawite minority regime enters it's death throes...
14 August 2011, 23:33
02
Hey Blind racist le-phonecian: this is the beginning of the end of the Assad dynasty, this is 2011 and not 1982, you can't just attack and kill 20,000: even christian europe did not accept slaughter of suni muslims in bosnia and they eventually attacked and ended milosovitch, it will be slow yet inevitable, the people are not going back home, period, and as the regime gets weaker you will see Damascus and Aleppo rise in full force. The irony is that the Russians can see that but neo-nazis-neo-serbian people here like le-phoneician can not see beyond their nose. You should also listen to the sermons of the shiekhs in Duma, and Damascus to see how mature and disciplined this peaceful revolution is, but i am sure you are too racist/blind to listen and you are simply motivated by hate: how did the christians survive in the suni muslim empire for hundreds of years if all your bullshit was valid? have you wondered. The personal doctor of mu3wiya of Damascus was christian, go do some readin
15 August 2011, 00:23
01
The Assad Regime keeps digging its grave. I wonder if they'll have enough time to flee to Tehran when the D day will come.
15 August 2011, 01:32
00
it will take more time and blood as syria is becoming the vietnam of iran.
syria is draining the persians,moneywise and militarywise......
15 August 2011, 04:55
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Wow and leb atheist and realist. Im glad to see ur comments. Finally i hear lebanese speak the truth unlike the usual racism, hate and brain washing we usually see here. Nobody killed nor harmed more lebanese than the lebanese ourselfs and we also comitted horrible crimes and massacres against other people including against other leb sects, against palestinians, against syrians, against armenians and against kurds so we shouldnt blame others before we blame ourselfs nor be racist unless we are to be racist against ourselfs. Many ppl dont like the lebanese bcuz of the unfortunate arrogance and racizm so many of us have, i wish more lebz were like u guys instead.
