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 2. Middle East


FIERCE FIGHTING IN DAMASCUS RAGES FOR SECOND DAY

SYRIA
Middle East

The Free Syrian Army fought government troops in Damascus for a second day
Monday in the fiercest fighting yet seen in the capital, a day after the
International Committee of the Red Cross said Syria had entered a state of
all-out civil war.

Issued on: 15/07/2012 - 21:21Modified: 16/07/2012 - 21:11


By:
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AFP - Troops fought fierce battles with rebels in Damascus on Monday for a
second straight day as Russia dismissed as "blackmail" Western pressure to back
a UN Security Council resolution against Syria.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said meanwhile that Syria is in a
state of all-out civil war and that all sides must respect humanitarian law or
risk facing war crimes prosecutions.

"Each time there is fighting we can see conditions that can be defined as a
non-international armed conflict," ICRC spokesman Alexis Heeb told AFP, adding
"international humanitarian law applies" in such circumstances.

But the violence raged on Monday, with troops resuming shelling of the southern
Damascus neighbourhood of Tadamon and soldiers and the Free Syrian Army (FSA)
clashing in two other districts, activists said.

Red Cross says Syria 'in state of civil war'

AP - Syria’s 16-month bloodbath crossed an important symbolic threshold Sunday
as the international Red Cross formally declared the conflict a civil war, a
status with implications for potential war crimes prosecutions.

The Red Cross statement came as United Nations observers gathered new details on
what happened in a village where dozens were reported killed in a regime
assault. After a second visit to Tremseh on Sunday, the team said Syrian troops
went door-to-door in the small farming community, checking residents’ IDs and
then killing some and taking others away.

They said the clashes that erupted on the capital's outskirts on Sunday is the
worst since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's autocratic regime
broke out in March 2011.

"Mortar shelling resumed in the early morning," targeting Tadamon, as troops and
rebels fought fiercely in Kfar Sousa in the west and Jobar in the east, said the
Local Coordination Committees activist network.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported "dawn battles on the road south
of Kfar Sousa, between rebel fighters and soldiers who were in a convoy passing
through the area."

"(It has) never been this intense," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told
AFP.

A resident of nearby Jaramana said the area had been turned into a "war zone,"
keeping him awake all night. Activists reported "tanks entering Tadamon and
ensuing clashes."

The pro-government Al-Watan newspaper said the army was battling "terrorist
groups" who had taken up positions in outer neighbourhoods intending to launch
"the great Damascus battle."

Tadamon, Kfar Sousa and Jobar are centres of anti-regime dissent which Abdel
Rahman said the army was trying to reclaim but has so far failed to do as FSA
fighters had locked them down.

The opposition Syrian National Council accused the regime of transforming
Damascus into "battlefields" and hailed the insurgents.

"The revolution is spreading and has tightened the noose around the regime in
zones where it thought it was beyond the anger of the people," said SNC
spokesman Georges Sabra.

The latest violence comes as the diplomatic pressure builds ahead of a key
Security Council vote on Friday to decide if a 300-strong UN observer mission to
Syria will be renewed.

The UN Supervision Mission in Syria, or UNSMIS, is tasked with overseeing the
implementation of a six-point peace plan brokered by envoy Kofi Annan which has
been flouted daily since mid-April when it went into effect.

'Assad won't quit'

Speaking ahead of talks with Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of trying to "blackmail" Moscow to get
its backing for possible sanctions against Syria.

"To our great regret, we are witnessing elements of blackmail," said Lavrov,
adding it was "unrealistic" for Moscow to back calls for Assad to step down as
the population supports him.

"It is simply unrealistic... he will not leave power. And this is not because we
are protecting him but because there is a very significant part of the Syrian
population behind him," Lavrov told reporters.

Annan is on his way to Moscow for talks with Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin
while UN chief Ban Ki-moon is due in Beijing where he will meet President Jintao
on a mission Tuesday to get support for tougher action on Syria.

Moscow and Beijing have twice blocked resolutions against Syria at the Security
Council which is divided over Western calls to pile new sanctions on Damascus.

"So divided that maybe Annan and Ban now have the most influence over Russia and
China to get anything done," a senior UN council diplomat said.

Britain, the United States, France, Germany and Portugal want a resolution
passed this week that would threaten sanctions if Assad does not pull back his
main weapons.

The diplomatic moves come after Syria denied its troops carried out a massacre
in the central village of Treimsa, where activists said dozens of people were
slaughtered Thursday by troops and pro-regime militia.

"What happened was not a massacre... It was a clash between regular forces and
armed groups who do not believe in a peaceful solution," foreign ministry
spokesman Jihad Makdissi said, insisting only five buildings were targeted.

UN observers went into Treisma on Sunday to probe the reported killings and
"observed over 50 houses that were burned and/or destroyed," said UNSMIS
spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh.

"Pools of blood and brain matter were observed in a number of homes," she said,
adding that the attack appears targeted at army defectors and activists."

"The number of casualties is still unclear."

Activists said more than 150 people were massacred in the village. If that
number is confirmed, it would make it one of the bloodiest episodes of the
uprising.

On Sunday, violence across Syria killed 105 people, the Observatory said, adding
to its toll of more than 17,000 people killed in the country since the uprising
began.

 

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