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120 Syrians Killed in Two Days, Annan Leaves Without an Agreement on a Ceasefire

March 11, 2012

Annan leaves Syria, dozens die as fighting rages

Khaleej Times, (AFP) 11 March 2012

UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan left Damascus on Sunday without managing to secure an accord to end bloodletting in Syria, as fighting raged in major flashpoints leaving dozens more dead.

Annan departed at the end of a two-day mission during which he said he presented President Bashar al-Assad with “concrete proposals” to halt unrest monitors say has claimed more than 8,500 lives since March last year.

On the ground however, more than 120 people — 47 of them civilians caught in the crossfire — have been killed in two days of clashes between armed rebels and regular soldiers, according to figures of rights monitors.

Most of the deaths occurred in an ferocious assault by regime forces against rebel bastions in the northwestern Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that fighting also occurred Sunday in the central city of Hama, the nearby province of Homs, and in the Damascus countryside.

Annan on his first mission to Syria to attempt to secure a halt to the violence, had emerged positive from talks on Sunday with Assad, a follow-up to their first meeting the previous day.

“It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be difficult, but we have to have hope. I am optimistic,” Annan told reporters, while stressing the urgency of finding a solution.

“The situation is so bad and so dangerous that all of us cannot afford to fail,” the former UN chief warned, in response to a suggestion that dialogue with the government was futile.

Assad had insisted during their first meeting on Saturday there would be no dialogue until the “terrorist groups” he claims are fomenting the violence are disbanded.

Opposition figures in their meeting with Annan however were adamant that the regime troops pressing the crackdown on dissent must first return to barracks before talks can begin.

Diplomats at the United Nations in New York had expressed pessimism about the prospects for Annan’s mission after troops poured into Idlib city, which lies in the province by the same name, late on Saturday just hours after his first meeting with Assad.

Annan told the media conference that he had on Sunday discussed with Assad ways to halt the unrest rocking Syria.

“I presented a set of concrete proposals which would have a real impact on the situation on the ground and which will help launch a process aimed at putting an end to this crisis,” the former UN chief said.

“The realistic response is to embrace change and reforms,” he added.

On Sunday, at least another 34 people were killed in violence across Syria, including eight soldiers and seven civilians in a string of incidents in Idlib province, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

The toll added to 91 people reported killed nationwide on Saturday, among them 32 civilians.

“Fierce fighting has been raging between deserters and regular army troops since (Sunday) morning in the Idlib province village of Al-Janudieh,” the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP in Beirut.

After seizing Idlib city on Saturday, troops fanned out into rural areas of the province on Sunday, notably the Jisr al-Shughur district, Abdel Rahman said.

“The army is also preparing to launch an offensive against the rebel district of Jabal al-Zawiya,” a range of hills close to the Turkish border, where fighters of the Free Syrian Army have been particularly active, he added.

A Turkish government official said in Ankara that dozens of Syrian refugees were fleeing the assault on Idlib.

At least 189 Syrians have crossed into Turkey since Saturday, the official told AFP, adding the figure tended to increase.

The military crackdown in Idlib came after the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr was stormed on March 1 after a month-long blitz in which hundreds of people died.

Ahead of a meeting on Monday that will bring together foreign ministers of the main Security Council member states, diplomats at the United Nations in New York expressed pessimism about the prospects for Annan’s peace mission.

“Kofi Annan’s meeting in Damascus seems to have gone nowhere,” said one senior envoy from a Security Council member.

“Assad is determined not to give in and the divide is growing between Russia and the Western countries,” the envoy said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

To the anger of Arab and Western governments, Syrian allies Russia and China have twice used their powers as permanent members of the Security Council to veto resolutions condemning Damascus.

Talks on a new US-led attempt to agree a resolution have hit a dead end, although US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet on the sidelines of Monday’s meeting in New York.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is to brief Monday’s meeting, has bluntly accused Assad’s troops of using “disproportionate” force against what started out as peaceful demonstrations.

Annan ends Syria trip with no deal

By ZEINA KARAM | AP

Arab News, Mar 11, 2012 , 20:52

BEIRUT:

International envoy and former UN chief Kofi Annan left Syria Sunday without a deal to end the bloody year-old conflict as regime forces mounted a new assault on rebel strongholds in the north.

Annan said he presented President Bashar Assad with concrete proposals “which will have a real impact on the ground.”

“Once it’s agreed, it will help launch the process and help end the crisis on the ground,” he told reporters at the end of his two-day visit to Syria.

Annan, who also met with Syrian opposition leaders and businessmen in Damascus, said he was optimistic following two sets of talks with Assad, but acknowledged that resolving the crisis would be tough.

“It’s going to be difficult but we have to have hope,” he said.

The former UN chief called for reforms that would create “a solid foundation for a democratic Syria,” but added: “You have to start by stopping the killing and the misery and the abuse that is going on today and then give time for a political settlement.”

The ongoing bloodshed cast a pall over the UN efforts to end the country’s yearlong conflict, with both the regime and the opposition refusing talks with the other.

In his discussions with Assad on Saturday, Annan made several proposals to end the political crisis and start a political dialogue. He was rebuffed by the president who rejected any immediate negotiations with the opposition, striking a further blow to already faltering international efforts for talks to end the conflict.

Assad told Annan that a political solution is impossible as long as “terrorist groups” threaten the country.

The opposition’s political leadership has also rejected dialogue, saying talk is impossible after a crackdown that the UN estimates has killed more than 7,500 people. That makes it likely that the conflict will continue to edge toward civil war.

Annan left Syria later Sunday, headed for Qatar, a UN spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Syrian forces, meanwhile, kept up an offensive against rebel strongholds in the north of the country and shelled neighborhoods in the restive central city of Homs, activists said.

Military units loyal to Assad appear to have been freed up after finally crushing lightly armed rebels in the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr last week, and are on the attack in Idlib province, across the border from key opposition supply bases in Turkey.

Troops on Saturday launched a long-anticipated assault to crush the opposition in Idlib province, bombarding its main city with tank shells from all sides and clashing with rebel fighters struggling to hold back an invasion.

Syrian forces had been building up for days around Idlib, the capital of a hilly, agricultural province along the Syria-Turkey border that has been a hotbed of protests against Assad’s regime.

An AP photographer touring Turkish villages across the border from Idlib reported hearing constant artillery pounding. Turkish villagers said the artillery fire begins just before dawn and that refugees were trickling in across the border during lulls.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground in Syria, said a civilian and three soldiers were killed Sunday in the village of Al-Janoudieh across from the border with Turkey where heavy clashes were taking place between troops and army defectors. A mother and her son were killed in the town of Ariha.

The dead troops were killed by army defectors when they stormed a village and began a campaign of raids and arrests, activists said.

In Homs, several activists reported intense shelling of the Karm el-Zeytoun, Bab Dreib and Job Al-Jandali districts with mortars and rocket propelled grenades and said several people were killed and wounded.

“There is very heavy destruction. Cars are burning and smoke is rising from the area,” said Homs-based activist Abu Bakr Saleh.

“They are trying to punish all districts of Homs where anti-government protests still take place,” he said.

Many fear the offensive in Idlib could end up like the regime’s campaign against the rebel-held neighborhood of Baba Amr in Homs. Troops besieged and shelled Baba Amr for weeks before capturing it on March 1.

Activists say hundreds were killed, and a UN official who visited the area this week said she was “horrified” by the destruction in the district, now virtually deserted.

In the northwestern city of Aleppo, gunmen assassinated local boxing champion Gheyath Tayfour. State-run news agency SANA said an armed group ambushed the 34-year-old Tayfour in his car near Aleppo University square and opened fire, killing him instantly with five bullets to his head.

Syria has seen a string of mysterious assassinations lately targeting doctors, professors and businessman, as the uprising against Assad turns more militarized.