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Saturday, February 4, 2012

217 civilians die in Syrian 'massacre'


Syrian forces killed at least 217 civilians, including women and children, in a "massacre" in the central city of Homs, a rights group said Saturday, ahead of a UN vote on the repression. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 138 of the fatalities were caused by mortar fire in the Al-Khalidiya district of Homs, which has become a flashpoint of the 10-month revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Another 79 people were killed in other parts of town. Following violence elsewhere, including Damascus, during the day, Friday s overall death toll was around 250 and could still rise, the Observatory said. "It s a real massacre," the observatory s director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, calling for the "immediate intervention" of the Arab League to end the killing. The Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya television channels showed images of dozens of bodies on the ground. The violence broke out after thousands of people across Syria defied the government crackdown to mark the 30th anniversary of a notorious 1982 massacre in the central city of Hama that killed thousands. News of the latest deaths came as a diplomat in New York said members of the UN Security Council would meet Saturday morning for a vote on a resolution condemning the violent repression in Syria. The text is the same as a draft resolution sent to the council s 15 members on Thursday. It highlights the UN body s support for an Arab League plan for a democratic transition while leaving out explicit references to calls for Assad to step down, the diplomat said Friday. The Syrian rights group, called on the people "to take to the streets in the towns and villages and to rise up against the regime which is committing a real massacre right now in Homs." The Homs violence followed an already bloody day in which, the Syrian Observatory said, at least 35 other people were reported killed across Syria, among them 16 civilians. The Britain-based group said 14 soldiers were killed in clashes with the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and that five army deserters also lost their lives. In addition, one person died of wounds sustained on Thursday, and the bodies of three other people were either found or returned to their families.

At least 17 killed in Syria violence


At least 17 people, two of them children and nine of them government troops, were killed in violence across Syria on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Britain-based group said a total of nine soldiers were killed in separate clashes with Free Syrian Army rebels in two villages in Daraa province, south of Damascus. The two children were killed in an explosion near a cultural centre in Kfartakharim in the northwestern Idlib region, the Observatory said. The activist group said two civilians were shot dead at dawn on farms in the flashpoint town of Rankus, near Damascus. Two people were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters in Daraya, near the capital. One person was killed during a rally in the central city of Hama and another civilian was killed in Idlib.

Leaked NATO report


After British media leaked a classified US military report that stated Pakistan was backing the Taliban in Afghanistan, NATO has said the report does not represent an analysis of the current situation in Afghanistan. NATO attempted to downplay on Wednesday the implications of a secret US military report leaked to British media that suggests Pakistan is actively supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan. "The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions," said Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). "It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis." The report, published by Britain's The Times newspaper, says the Taliban is in a position to retake control of Afghanistan once ISAF troops withdraw from the country. All combat troops are scheduled to leave by 2014. The BBC also had access to the report and quoted it as saying "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly." According to the BBC, the report was compiled from 27,000 interrogations of more than 4,000 captured Taliban and al Qaeda operatives. Cummings said it was important to consider the context of the statements and not "to draw conclusions based on the Taliban comments." Abdul Basit, a spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, said the allegations were "frivolous," and added Pakistan was committed to non-interference in Afghanistan. Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, travels to Afghanistan on Wednesday for meetings aimed at repairing diplomatic ties between the two countries.