Syria Reported to Kill 100 on Eve of Visit by Observers
By KAREEM FAHIM
NYT
CAIRO — Syrian rights activists and opposition groups said on Wednesday that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had killed more than 100 defecting soldiers, civilians and antigovernment activists over the last three days in northwestern Syria. If confirmed, the killings would constitute one of the worst spasms of violence in the nine-month-old uprising.
Word of the killings, which the activists and opposition groups said had taken place near the city of Idlib near the Turkish border, was reported a day before observers from the Arab League are to visit Syria for the first time to monitor pledges by Mr. Assad’s government to withdraw its troops from besieged areas.
Some activists said Mr. Assad’s forces had intensified a campaign of deadly violence and intimidation partly because the impending arrival of Arab League monitors may prevent such action in coming days. “I fear the security forces may be trying to crush this thing before the monitors get in," said Murhaf Jouejati, a member of the Syrian National Council, an opposition group.
The Syrian government, which has sought to characterize the anti-Assad uprising as a Western-backed insurrection by terrorist gangs and thugs, has not commented on reports of the killings. But the official Syrian Arab News Agency said on its web site that Syrian authorities in the cities of Idlib, Homs and Daraa had “stormed dens of armed terrorist groups , arresting tens of wanted men who committed crimes of killing, attacked and sabotaged private and public properties.”
(More here.)
NYT
CAIRO — Syrian rights activists and opposition groups said on Wednesday that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had killed more than 100 defecting soldiers, civilians and antigovernment activists over the last three days in northwestern Syria. If confirmed, the killings would constitute one of the worst spasms of violence in the nine-month-old uprising.
Word of the killings, which the activists and opposition groups said had taken place near the city of Idlib near the Turkish border, was reported a day before observers from the Arab League are to visit Syria for the first time to monitor pledges by Mr. Assad’s government to withdraw its troops from besieged areas.
Some activists said Mr. Assad’s forces had intensified a campaign of deadly violence and intimidation partly because the impending arrival of Arab League monitors may prevent such action in coming days. “I fear the security forces may be trying to crush this thing before the monitors get in," said Murhaf Jouejati, a member of the Syrian National Council, an opposition group.
The Syrian government, which has sought to characterize the anti-Assad uprising as a Western-backed insurrection by terrorist gangs and thugs, has not commented on reports of the killings. But the official Syrian Arab News Agency said on its web site that Syrian authorities in the cities of Idlib, Homs and Daraa had “stormed dens of armed terrorist groups , arresting tens of wanted men who committed crimes of killing, attacked and sabotaged private and public properties.”
(More here.)
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