110 Syrians Killed in New Violence despite U.N. Peace Call
Fierce clashes erupted in Syria on Thursday, with a busload of fleeing civilians among 110 killed, as President Bashar al-Assad's foes described a U.N. Security Council peace call as toothless.
The army attacked a string of towns, while rebel fighters struck military posts in several provinces and announced a command structure to coordinate hit-and-run strikes in and around Damascus.
The escalation came just hours after the Security Council adopted a statement urging Assad and the opposition to implement "fully and immediately" international envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.
The Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, dismissed the U.N. statement, saying it offered "the regime the opportunity to push ahead with its repression in order to crush the revolt by the Syrian people."
Samir Nashar, an SNC executive committee member, told Agence France Presse by telephone from Istanbul: "It's time for the U.N. Security Council to use its powers to stop these massacres."
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the international community had to go further and develop "a joint plan of action."
"We continue to think that Syria is playing for time ... In order for this human tragedy to end we must act together," he told reporters in Vienna. "Just making calls is not enough."
He also said he did not think "that this regime, with these characteristics, can survive. It is against the logic and history and the flow of history.
"A regime fighting against its own people, trying to keep the status quo, cannot survive."
Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed 84 people across the country, including 12 children, four women and an army dissenter.
Twenty-four people were killed in Idlib, 33 in Homs, 15 in Hama, four in Daraa, two in Aleppo, two in Latakia, two in Damascus suburbs and one in the heart of the capital, the LCC said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fierce clashes also killed 18 regime soldiers and nine army deserters across the country.
A bus, with women and children on board, was shot up close to the town of Sermin in the northwestern province of Idlib, near the Turkish border, and 10 people died, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Opposition activist Milad Fadl, contacted by AFP in Beirut, said the civilians were headed for Turkey to escape the bloodshed when regime forces opened fire.
A day after the Security Council statement was passed, the European Union was set to slap a travel ban and assets freeze on Assad's British-born wife Asma and other members of his family, diplomats said in Brussels.
Annan's plan calls for Assad to pull troops and heavy weapons out of protest cities, a daily two-hour humanitarian pause to hostilities, access to all areas affected by the fighting and a U.N.-supervised halt to all clashes.
Monitors say more than 9,100 people have been killed in a revolt against Assad that started with peaceful protests before turning into an increasingly armed revolt, faced with a brutal crackdown costing dozens of lives each day.
On the rebel side, the Free Syrian Army announced that it has set up a military council to coordinate hit-and-run strikes around the capital, so far largely spared the worst violence.
The official media in Damascus on Thursday played up the lack of any threat or ultimatum in the non-binding Security Council statement aimed at bolstering former U.N. chief Annan's mission.
After intense negotiations between major U.N. powers, Russia and China signed up to the Western-drafted text which calls on Assad to work toward a cessation of hostilities and a democratic transition.
Russia and China have vetoed two Security Council resolutions on Syria, arguing they were unbalanced and aimed at regime change.
The Security Council awaited a formal response from Syria to its peace call.
With a veiled warning of future action, the Security Council called on Assad and the opposition to work "towards a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis and to implement fully and immediately (Annan's) initial six-point proposal."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the U.N. statement and warned Assad to carry out the peace plan or "face increasing pressure and isolation."
European countries still want to press for a full, binding Security Council resolution on the crisis, with French envoy Gerard Araud calling the statement "a small step by the Security Council in the right direction."
Meanwhile, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton will attend the next "Friends of Syria" talks in Istanbul on April 1.
Nuland said the meeting will build on previous efforts to end the violence, enabling the delivery of humanitarian aid and launching a political process aimed at replacing Assad.
In other developments, Iran stressed its opposition to any foreign intervention in Syria, its chief Middle East ally, and called for a political solution to the bloody conflict there.
Iran "once again reiterates its emphasis on solving the current Syrian situation via political means and refraining from any hasty move and intervention," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, according to the website of state television network IRIB.
Iran "will go along with any plan that does not violate this nation's sovereignty, which includes the reform plans by the president and helps stability and calmness and also prepares the ground for national dialogue," he said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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