Syrian forces killed at least seven people in a massive tank-backed raid on the flashpoint city of Homs on Wednesday, activists said, after the regime put off a visit by the Arab League chief. Wednesday morning’s deadly security operation in Homs came after 2,000 people took to the streets of the central city for anti-regime protests the night before, the human rights activists told AFP in Nicosia. “Security forces opened fire during a security operation launched in the city of Homs, killing seven people and wounding 20 others,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Earlier, the Local Coordination Committees reported one person was shot and killed during the operation in Homs. The LCC, which organises the anti-regime protests on the ground, said security forces backed by tanks swept early morning into Homs, where communications and Internet services were cut in many neighbourhoods. Activists said heavy machine-gun fire was heard in the Bab Dreib and Bostan Diwan neighbourhoods of Homs after 2,000 protesters had set out for the area from Bab Tadmor.
They reported that anti-regime demonstrators also took place in several other parts of the strife-torn country, including the central city of Hama, but that a massive security clampdown prevented rallies in the port of Latakia. The security operations came hours after Syria requested the postponement of a planned visit by Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi in which he had been due to present a reform initiative of which Damascus had been strongly critical. “He has been informed of those circumstances and a new date will be set for his visit,” the official SANA news agency said late on Tuesday. Arabi had been commissioned by the 22-member bloc to travel to Damascus on Wednesday with a 13-point document outlining proposals to end the government’s bloody crackdown on dissent and push Assad to hold elections in three years, move towards a pluralistic government and halt immediately the crackdown on anti-government protesters. Its finance minister acknowledged on Wednesday that the violence has driven down economic growth expectations to one percent for 2011 and three percent in 2012, from the 5.5 percent recorded last year. “The current circumstances, no doubt, have some negative impact on the economy. We hope to overcome it through reforms,” he said.
