Syrian activists protested against Bashar al-Assad on Friday, saying the Syrian president will be defeated, as a bomb the government blamed on terrorists killed 10 security personnel.
The latest violence, which left three security forces dead elsewhere, came as international envoy Kofi Annan’s spokesman acknowledged the situation was “not good” and as rights monitors reported an opposition activist killed and intense shelling of protest centres.
“It’s a very fragile ceasefire,” Ahmad Fawzi told reporters of the tenuous truce which has seen more than 120 civilians killed since it went into effect on April 12.\ The deadly blast on took placed in the southern region of Quneitra, near the border with Israel in the disputed Golan Heights, state television reported. “An armed terrorist group exploded a 100-kilogramme (220-pound) bomb in Sahm al-Jolan in the region of Quneitra, killing 10 members of the security forces,” the television said. Meanwhile, an advance team of UN military observers resumed work bolstered by the signing on Thursday of a protocol governing their mission to monitor a six-point plan brokered by Annan. UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged the Security Council to take “early action” to bolster the mission, while acknowledging that boosting its numbers to 300 was “not a decision without risk.”
Opposition activists had called for a show of defiance against Assad’s regime for the main weekly protests on the Muslim day of prayer and rest. “We will win and Assad will be defeated,” was the slogan on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook Page, which has been a major engine of the 13-month uprising that monitors say has left more than 11,000 people dead. Videos posted online showed thousands of demonstrators joining a huge rally in the city of Hassaka in the mainly Kurdish northeast. Others showed demonstrations in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the uprising, as well as in the Damascus suburbs.
Across the country, activists reported a massive security force presence, particularly outside mosques, the traditional starting point for marches and protests. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the UN observer mission needed to be able to guarantee Syrians the freedom to protest. “We need observers on the ground, but properly equipped observers with helicopters that can ensure the right to protest. It’s extremely important. The day this freedom is guaranteed, the regime will fall,” he said. But the head of the small observer advance team, Morocco’s Colonel Ahmed Himmiche, said it would not be attending demonstrations on Friday for fear that “our presence is used for an escalation.” “Today, we have other tasks. We are going to meet civilians and representatives of organisations,” Himmiche told AFP as his team prepared to leave their Damascus hotel.
Assads’ luxury lifestyle is target of new EU sanctions
The Assad couple’s lifestyle is the next target of EU sanctions on the Syrian regime, with the bloc ready to ban exports of luxury items, diplomats said Friday. “Sanctions are ready,” said an EU diplomat who asked not to be named. “We will see Monday, depending on the situation on the ground, if European Union foreign ministers decide to adopt them or not” at talks in Luxembourg. This 14th round of EU sanctions would concern luxury goods and so-called dual-use goods which can be used for internal repression or for the manufacturing of equipment used for internal repression, a senior EU diplomat said. By targeting luxury items, the EU is “symbolically” targeting the lifestyle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his glamorous British-born wife Asma, said a European diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. “The Assad couple, as well as his inner circle and leaders of the regime must be made to understand that events in Syria will also impact their personal lives,” the source told AFP. The EU a month ago tightened the noose on Assad’s family, slapping a travel ban and asset freeze on his wife, mother and sister in the 13th round of EU sanctions in a year. His immediate family were among 12 people and two oil companies added to an existing EU blacklist totalling 126 people and 41 firms or utilities. Asked whether the EU would provide logistical support to the UN team monitorihng a ceasefire in Syria, a senior EU diplomat said Brussels had informed UN chief Ban Ki-moon of the bloc’s readiness to back the mission. “They may need helicopters, armoured cars and trucks or satellite images,” he said. “We can supply all of that and we’re in contact to see exactly what they need.”
