Syria Report

15 February 2012

Increase in death toll

Local Coordination Committees report that 49 were killed yesterday. 11 died in Idlib, 10 in Aleppo, 9 in Homs, 6 in Damascus Suburbs, 4 in Daraa, 4 in Deir Ezzor, 3 in Hama, 1 in Lattakia, and 1 in Damascus.

Troops also continued shelling neighbourhoods in Homs, the “13th day of their bombardment of the city” Reuters said.

“The shelling of the Baba Amr neighborhood began at dawn and is the most intense in five days,” said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, citing activists on the ground, Al-Arabiya reported from Dubai yesterday.

SANA reports that in Baba Amr neighborhood, the law-enforcement forces discovered tunnels used by “armed terrorist groups” to smuggle arms and move from one place to another. Another “armed terrorist group” attacked with shells and machineguns the University housing in Homs city causing great damage to the building

A Colonel and three other army members were killed yesterday in the Aleppo countryside by “an armed terrorist group”, SANA says. Nine terrorists were killed and many others wounded during the clashes.

According to Damascus Arabic daily al-Watan, Homs yesterday saw “the widespread presence of armed groups who opened fire on passers-by and prevented citizens from leaving their houses”. The paper also reported that in attacks on security forces barriers in Mreijeh the insurgents used “machine guns and hand grenades made in Israel”.

Hama offensive resumes

Reuters says that government forces launched an offensive on the city of Hama early today, firing on residential neighbourhoods from armored vehicles and mobile anti-aircraft guns, Reuters says, quoting activists.

In the Hama neighborhood of al-Barodiyeh, security forces arrested a number of gunmen disguised in women’s attire (niqab) in an effort to avoid inspection, an official source revealed to al-Watan.

Syria denies UN Human Rights Commission claims

The Foreign Ministry stated in a letter to the UN High Commission for Human Rights Syria's absolute rejection of the allegations made by Commissioner Navi Pillay, SANA reports.

The Ministry said the Commissioner has been “turned into a tool in the hands of some countries targeting Syria,” ignoring crimes committed by the terrorist armed groups, while …Pillay turned a blind eye to facts.

Meanwhile, Edward Luck, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, told the UN News Centre yesterday that he was deeply concerned that the situation in Syria. He said the deadly violence in Syria threatens to permanently divide the country along sectarian and ethnic lines.

Beirut daily Al-Akhbar reports that a senior Chinese official has told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the crisis should be dealt with by the government, not outside forces. The official Chinese Xinhua news agency said State Councilor Dai Bingguo told Clinton that the violence was "essentially Syria's internal affair."

Former state TV state anchor speaks out

Former Syria TV anchor Hani al-Malazi has admitted to taking part in “an organized campaign to tarnish the image of pro-democracy protests,” he said in an interview with Al-Arabiya in Beirut.  He accused state media of being accomplice in the “killing of innocent civilians”.

“State TV… hosts more than 1,000 writers, political analysts, and artists who do nothing except praise the regime.” Malazi added that he took part in “promoting the regime’s lies which revolved around foreign agendas and Islamist plots”.

Malazi added that Syrian TV broadcast footage of pro-regime celebrations while families were burying their dead. “Any sane person with even a tiny bit of humanity would never accept that.”