Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Syrian Forces Shell Towns, Clash With Rebels

Syrian Forces Shell Towns, Clash With Rebels
 
By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press
BEIRUT March 24, 2012 (AP)
 
Syrian troops shelled rebellious areas in central and northern Syria on 
Saturday in the latest push to quash the uprising against President 
Bashar Assad, but faced fierce resistance from army defectors, activists 
said.
 
Much of the day's fighting focused on the northeastern town of Saraqeb, 
which activists said regime troops and tanks entered from the north amid 
heavy shelling.
 
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting 
reached the central market district where army defectors damaged a tank 
and three armored personnel carriers. Late Saturday, it said 2 rebel 
fighters and 9 government troops had been killed in the clashes.
 
"Large numbers of residents are fleeing the town," said Rami 
Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, which has a network of 
activists inside Syria. "People have been leaving the town for some time 
but after today's attack the process intensified."
 
Government troops also shelled parts of the central city of Homs and the 
nearby town of al-Qusair. Activist videos posted online Saturday showed 
explosions in residential neighborhoods sending up balls of flame and 
huge plumes of black smoke.
 
The Observatory said 14 people were killed Saturday in Homs province. 
Another group, the Local Coordination Committees, put the death toll 
there at 24. Both said more than 40 people were killed nationwide.
 
Syria's government has been on the offensive over the past two months 
and has pushed rebels from a number of strongholds: The provincial 
capital and other towns in the northwestern province of Idlib that 
borders Turkey, the central provinces of Hama and Homs, and the eastern 
oil-rich region of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq.
 
Syria's rebels, who took up arms following the regime's crackdown on 
protesters, are outgunned by armored units loyal to Assad, but have 
adopted a tactic of hit-and-run strikes on security checkpoints and 
convoys. They killed at least 6 soldiers in such attacks on Saturday, 
the Observatory said.
 
The Syrian government cites the rise in such attacks to boost its 
argument that the uprising is being carried out by terrorist groups 
acting out a foreign conspiracy.
 
The Syrian state news agency said an "armed terrorist group" blew up a 
natural gas pipeline in the country's east on Saturday, causing the 
leakage of 700,000 cubic meters of gas.
 
The agency said the pipeline feeds a fertilizer factory and electric 
plant in Homs, and that the damage would take three days to repair.
 
The LCC said the troops that entered Saraqeb were accompanied by 
pro-government gunmen and plainclothes security agents who arrived in 
buses and started conducting raids and detaining people. Calls to the 
town could not get through. The government is known to cut networks in 
areas where operations are under way.
 
Saraqeb, in the northern province of Idlib, had been held by army 
defectors for months.
 
The attack came 11 days after troops retook the city of Idlib, the 
provincial capital, which had also been under rebel control for months.
 
Activists said troops also pounded the town of Qalaat al-Madiq in Hama 
province with mortars and heavy machine guns.
 
International condemnation and high-level diplomacy have failed to stop 
the year-old Syria crisis that the U.N. says has killed more than 8,000 
people, many of them civilian protesters.
 
The U.S., Europe and many Arab states have called on Assad to stand 
down, but Russia and China have protected Syria from condemnation by the 
U.N. Security Council.
 
Earlier this week, the council passed a nonbinding statement calling for 
a cease-fire to allow for dialogue between all sides on a political 
solution and the delivery of aid to suffering civilians.
 
An adviser to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday the 
country seeks a political solution.
 
Sergei Prikhodko said Moscow's top priority for Syria is to halt to the 
violence and persuade the opposition "to sit at the negotiating table 
with government representatives and reach a peaceful resolution of the 
crisis."
 
Joint U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is to discuss the crisis with 
Russian official in Moscow on Sunday. He is due to visit Beijing on 
Tuesday and Wednesday.
 
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/syrian-forces-shell-towns-clash-rebels-15994231?page=2
 
———
 
Associated Press writer Albert Aji contributed reporting from Damascus, 
Syria.
-- 
Sostieni Rete ECO
 
http://rete-eco.it/it/sostienici.html
 
 

 Non vedo il commento. Tsk, tsk.
 
Ops!  Mi deve essere saltato nell'orgasmo.
 
Volevo scrivere: "Vai Assad, massacra tutti! Donne, vecchi, bambini. 
Non lasciare nessuno vivo, fai che impallidisca la memoria di Vlad! "
 
E' ciò che ti aspettavi io dicessi, no?


 No, perche' l'ha gia' fatto, con il tuo benestare, in un paio di citta'.
 
Ah, ok, allora cambio versione, tanto è lo stesso.
 
"Andate insorti, massacrate tutti! Donne, vecchi, bambini. Non lasciate 
nessuno vivo: ripulite la Siria dalla progenie degli infedeli e dagli 
scismatici, fate che impallidisca la memoria di Vlad! "
 
Va meglio?
