KUWAIT CITY, June 15, (Agencies): The death toll of the unabated violence in Syria Friday jumped to 36 people as President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime continued its defiance to the international community calls for stop violent repression of anti-regime protesters.
In its tally update, the opposition Local Coordination Committee (LCC) said that the regime forces have continued pounding opposition bastion and forged ahead with a broad crackdown campaign against activities across the nation.
And with the uprising against the Syrian regime entering its 16th month, thousands of people took to the streets across the country calling on President Bashar al-Assad to quit power, the watchdog and activists said.
“Two demonstrators were killed in the neighborhood of Salah al-Din in Aleppo,” Syria’s second city and northern economic hub, the Britain-based Observatory said.
An explosion outside a mosque killed eight people in the town of Busra al-Sham in the southern province of Daraa, considered the cradle of the uprising against the Assad regime, the watchdog said.
Another explosion was reported in the Al-Midan neighbourhood of the capital Damascus, but there were reports of injuries, it added.
But a civilian was shot dead by a sniper in the Harasta neighbourhood of the capital on Friday, according to the Observatory.
And in the central province of Homs, a civilian and an officer were killed amid ongoing gunfire and shelling attacks on the rebel-held town of Rastan, the Observatory said.
Government troops have been trying to regain control of Rastan “for months,” said the Observatory, as well as parts of Homs city and the town of Andan in Aleppo which all have falled into rebels hands.
Two civilians were killed on Friday as troops and rebels clashed over Homs city and Andan, the Observatory said.
Fighting between rebels and regime forces also took place near the military intelligence headquarters and a police station in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, it said.
Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committees which organise anti-regime protests uploaded videos of demonstrations across Syria in front of mosques which many featuring slogans denouncing Russia’s support of the Syrian regime.
As on nearly every Friday since the uprising began, activists had called for nationwide demonstrations after weekly Muslim prayers, with this week’s slogan being “Always prepared for a strong mobilisation.”
One video from Idlib showed hundreds of demonstrators shouting slogans against the regime as some in the crowd held opposition flags and a sign reading “Death to Russia”.
The Observatory said “thousands demonstrated Friday” in the central city of Hama and on the road to Aleppo, also denouncing Russian support for the Assad regime.
In all, at least 84 people died in clashes and bombings across Syria on Thursday, 48 of them civilians, the Observatory said.
More than 14,400 have been killed since the revolt began in March last year, according to the Observatory’s figures.
Rape
Government forces have used rape and other sexual violence against men, women and children during the Syrian uprising, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.
The US-based group said it had recorded 20 incidents from interviews inside and outside Syria with eight victims, including four women, and more than 25 other people with knowledge of sexual abuse - including medical workers, former detainees, army defectors, and women’s rights activists.
“Sexual violence in detention is one of many horrific weapons in the Syrian government’s torture arsenal and Syrian security forces regularly use it to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.
“The assaults are not limited to detention facilities — government forces and pro-government shabiha militia members have also sexually assaulted women and girls during home raids and residential sweeps.”
Cases were reported all around Syria, but most of all in Homs province, an epicentre of the revolt.
The UN observer force on Friday accused both sides in the Syrian conflict of hampering its peace mission and admitted its limitations in the face of escalating violence.
France, meanwhile, said that world powers could hold a summit on the Syrian crisis as the deadly anti-regime revolt entered its 16th month.
“Violence, over the past 10 days, has been intensifying, again willingly by both the parties, with losses on both sides and significant risks to our observers,” the force’s chief Major General Robert Mood told a news conference in Damascus.
Shelled
Syrian troops on Friday shelled rebel-held areas and clashed with opposition fighters in several locations across the country, part of a regime offensive that began earlier this week to recover territories controlled by rebels.
The Local Coordination Committees and Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights said troops bombarded the northern town of Anadan in the northern Aleppo province on Friday. The Observatory says one person was killed.
The groups said troops have also shelled the rebel-held neighborhoods of Khaldieh and Jouret al-Shayah in the central Homs province.
Russia on Friday denied discussing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s departure with Western nations and warned it may skip a planned conference on the crisis if Iran is not invited as well.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s comments seemed aimed at quashing reports from several major capitals about a discernible shift in Russia’s approach to its Soviet-era ally that acknowledged the nearing end of Assad’s regime.
The French foreign minister said on Friday that Russia views Assad as a “tyrant” while a US State Department spokeswoman said a day earlier that “the Russians have also talked about” a political transition in Syria.
“If this was really said, this is not true,” Lavrov said in reference to US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland’s comments.
“There were no such discussions and there could not have been such discussions. This completely contradicts our position,” he told reporters.
“We are not involved in regime change through either the UN Security Council or through involvement in any sort of political conspiracies.”
Helicopters
Russia said Friday it is not making any new deliveries of attack helicopters to Syria and has only carried out repairs of helicopters sent there many years ago.
“There are no new supplies of Russian-made attack helicopters to Syria,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that “planned repairs were carried out earlier on helicopters supplied to Syria many years ago.”
The ministry statement reasserted Russia’s position that “all our military and technical cooperation with Syria is limited to the supply of defensive weapons.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that the United States held “constructive” talks with Russia but urged more action after days of feuding over the bloodshed in Syria.
Clinton, who on Tuesday accused Russia of fueling the violence by sending attack helicopters to Syria, said that Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns met Russia’s foreign minister on the sidelines of a conference in Afghanistan.
“My deputy Bill Burns had a constructive meeting in Kabul with Russian Foreign Minister (Sergei) Lavrov. We don’t see eye to eye on all of the issues, but our discussions continue,” Clinton told a news conference.
Equipment
The United States on Thursday acknowledged providing communications equipment and other forms of assistance to members of the “peaceful opposition” in Syria.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the aid is part of “non-lethal” assistance to Syrians living under President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and part of a global effort to support Internet freedom.
Nuland declined to elaborate on the aid, but a source familiar with the effort said it includes things such as anonymizing software, and satellite phones with GPS capabilities “to document the location of atrocities.”
Nuland said the Internet freedom initiatives are part of “programs that we do around the world that we’ve been doing with Syrians and many, many other countries for quite a long time.”
US President Barack Obama spoke with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Thursday amid concerns about escalating violence in Syria and plans to widen sanctions on Iran.
The White House gave no details of the conversation, but the telephone discussion came as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to hold production limits — despite an initial Saudi suggestion that OPEC may need to hike output later this year.
Washington is watching the oil markets closely and is also concerned about escalating violence in Syria, where Saudi Arabia has been an outspoken supporter of the opposition, which is fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The call also came two weeks before tough new US sanctions on oil transactions with Iran come into force and before the 27-country EU plans to ban shipments from Iran, which the West believes is trying to build nuclear weapons.
Plot
Syrian authorities have uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to bomb Damascus mosques around the main weekly prayers, state media reported on Friday.
A suspect detained on Thursday confessed that he had been planning a suicide bombing during Friday prayers at the Al-Rifai Mosque in the heart of the capital, the official SANA news agency reported.
“The authorities on Thursday arrested the terrorist Mohamed Hossam al-Saddaqa, a member of the Al-Nusra Front of al-Qaeda, who was planning to blow himself up inside Al-Rifai Mosque in Damascus during Friday prayers,” SANA said.
Saddaqa told his captors the group’s members “have prepared young men ... to carry out suicide bombings in several areas in Damascus during prayers on Friday, June 15,” SANA said.
“There are other suicide bombers planning attacks on a number of mosques in Damascus during Friday prayers,” it quoted him as saying.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Friday urged United Nations monitors to end violence in Syria or leave the country, where over 100 people have been killed in violence in two days.
“The role of the international observers has become that of a witness to murder,” the Britain-based watchdog stated, condemning the recent spike in violence despite their presence.
“It is worth mentioning that the number of victims has risen dramatically over the last month,” the Observatory said.
The European Union sent a message Friday to the Syrian regime, which stands accused of killing thousands of its own citizens: No more caviar, fancy shoes or primo cigars for you until the violence stops.
The European Council says a ban will begin Sunday on exporting to Syria some luxury items or “dual use” goods that could be used for internal repression. Its statement listed some prime examples: caviar, shoes and clothing costing more than 600 euros ($750); gems and pearls; and cars costing more than 25,000 euros ($31,400). Also banned are gas masks and certain chemicals and toxins.
Syria is descending into a spiral of bloodshed, with UN observers reporting a sharp increase in violence in recent weeks. Activists say 14,000 people have been killed since March 2011, when an uprising began against President Bashar Assad and his regime responded with a violent crackdown.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the new round of sanctions was necessary and had been designed to avoid affecting ordinary citizens.
“In the current situation, the EU must keep up the pressure on the Syrian regime,” Ashton said in a statement. “EU sanctions target those responsible for the appalling repression and violence against the civilian population.”
But Edward Burke, a research fellow at the London-based Center for European Reform, said the practical impact of the ban on luxury items would be “zero.”
“This is an existential fight for them — caviar or not,” Burke said. “These are guys with their backs to the wall, blood on their hands and nothing to lose.”