More than 5,000 people have been killed in nine months of unrest in Syria, the UN human rights chief said, as an insurgency began to overshadow what had initially been street protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-year rule. Navi Pillay reported the death toll to the UN Security Council as 1,000 higher than the previous toll just 10 days ago. It includes civilians, army defectors and those executed for refusing to shoot civilians, but not soldiers or security personnel killed by opposition forces, she said. The Syrian government has said more than 1,100 members of the army, police and security services have been killed. Syria’s actions could constitute crimes against humanity, said Pillay, issuing a fresh call for the council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court. “It was the most horrifying briefing that we’ve had in the Security Council over the last two years,” British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said after the session, which was arranged despite opposition from Russia, China and Brazil. The sharp rise in the death toll is bound to lend weight to those arguing for increased international intervention to stop the bloodshed in Syria. In the latest violence around dawn on Tuesday, security forces shot dead 11 people and wounded 26 others in Idlib, a northern protest hotbed, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. At the flashpoint central province of Homs, an explosion set a gas pipeline on fire on Monday, the second reported pipeline blast in the area in a week. “The fire lit the night sky,” said a resident who gave his name as Abu Khalaf. State news agency SANA said the pipeline, near the town of Rastan, supplied gas to an electricity power plant. SANA also said border guards foiled an attempt by “an armed terrorist group” to cross into Syria from Turkey on Monday, the second such reported incident in a week. It said they shot dead two of the 15-strong group.
Iran lawmakers pass Syria free trade bill: Iran’s parliament on Tuesday passed a bill for a free trade agreement with Syria in a show of support for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime beset by protests and international pressure. The bill provides for free trade between Iran and Syria within the next five years, according to Iranian state television. Both countries are subject to international sanctions on their economies. The bill was introduced into parliament as an emergency procedure by Iran’s government. Allaedin Boroujerdi said the proposed pact was “a firm response” to the United States and its allies “investing billions of dollars to change the political structure of the Syrian government.” Syria is Iran’s main ally in the Middle East. Iranian officials, however, have recently criticised repression by Syrian security forces.
