Syrian forces killed at least 11 civilians in the central town of Rastan on Thursday, activists said, in the latest military assault to try and quell a revolt against the 11-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Security forces backed by tanks have laid siege to Rastan, a town of 60,000, since Sunday in an effort to crush protests. The 11 civilians were killed by gunfire from snipers and security forces who stormed Rastan’s neighbourhoods and imposed a curfew, Ammar Qurabi, head of the Syrian Organisation for Human Rights, and lawyer Razan Zaitouna told Reuters.
They said at least 52 civilians had been killed and 200 arrested in Rastan since Sunday. On Tuesday alone, shelling killed 41, including a four-year-old girl, Zaitouna said. Syria has barred most international media, making it difficult to verify accounts of the violence. Qurabi said the number of killings exceeded those activists had documented. “To those who want retribution I say: this is the age of international justice and the killers will be held accountable,” he told a Syrian opposition meeting in Turkey.
He acknowledged that protesters had occasionally used guns. “There have been rare instances of people who have seen their parents, wives or children being killed, (people) taking their personal weapons and trying to resist. But they were smothered by the overwhelming and unjustifiable force being used by the authorities,” Qurabi added. He said his organisation had the names of 1,113 civilians killed since anti-Assad protests erupted on March 18.
Four soldiers killed by “armed terrorist groups” in Rastan on Wednesday were buried on Thursday, the state news agency said.
Activists have reported cases of secret police shooting soldiers for refusing to fire at protesters. While the crackdown on Rastan intensified, authorities began freeing hundreds of political prisoners after Assad issued a general amnesty in response to the 10 weeks of anti-Assad unrest, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.