Syrian forces ‘kill 50’ in two days
Lindsey Hilsum
International Editor
Activists and Arab League observers report an escalation in violence in Syria amid claims that forces loyal to President Assad killing an estimated 50 people over two days.
The head of the Arab League observers said in a statement on Friday that three Syrian cities – Homs, Hama and Idlib – had witnessed a “very high escalation” of violence since Tuesday.
The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Associated Press that there had been “a terrifying massacre” and called for an independent investigation of the killings.
The UN says it can no longer keep track of the number of fatalities, but activists and human rights groups say an estimated 50 people have been killed.
Residents in Homs say that 14 members of a Sunni Muslim family were killed in Homs, in one of Syria’s worst sectarian attacks.
Activists on the ground said that forces loyal to President Assad attacked residential areas of Homs perceived as being rebellious, with mortars and machine-gun fire on Thursday and Friday. Early reports suggested that 30 people had died on Thursday but human rights group now believe the number of casualties to be lower.
In a pre-dawn attack in Homa on Friday, tank and mortar fire killed an estimated 15 people during the fourth day of an army assault on districts of the city where protests against President Assad are growing.
International Editor Lindsey Hilsum blogs on the Youtube footage which appears to show that the Iranian government is sending Revolutionary Guards to fights in Syria:
“Were they really engineers or were they in Homs for another purpose? I have no way of knowing.
“Mahmoud Haj Hamad, who audited spending in the Syrian Defence Ministry until he fled to Egypt last month, told Channel 4 News today that he oversaw the payment of Iranian snipers who would come as ‘military advisors’ for six months at a time. But the footage doesn’t prove it.”
UN Security Council meeting
The escalation in violence comes on the day that the UN Security Council discussed the potential for resolution on Syria, ahead of a vote on a new Western-Arab draft resolution next week.
During the meeting, Russia said it could veto any UN.Security Council resolution which demands Syrian President Assad resign, adding that any attempt to rush such a proposal to a vote is doomed to fail.
In Syria’s the northern city of Idlib, a car bomb exploded on Friday at a checkpoint, witnesses told the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The number of casualties was not immediately clear.
The state news agency SANA said that “terrorists” killed a security man in Homs on Friday and that a bomb killed a child and wounded several civilians and security personnel in the Damascus district of Midan.
UNICEF said on Friday that at least 384 children have been killed during the 10-month uprising in Syria.
The UN estimates that more than 5,400 people have been killed since the uprising in Syria began in March, but activists say the figure could be much higher, due to the number of unrecorded fatalities.