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28 March 2024

Assad proposes referendum in strife-torn Syria

Published
By Reuters

Syrian opposition leaders and the West have scorned a new offer by President Bashar al-Assad to hold multi-party elections, as his troops mounted more attacks on rebel-held areas.       

Assad promised a referendum in two weeks' time on a new constitution leading to elections within 90 days, but made clear he still planned to crush the uprising against him by force.   

The military unleashed a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad's late father Hafez al-Assad, firing at residential neighbourhoods with anti-aircraft guns mounted on armoured vehicles, opposition activists said.  

France said it was negotiating a new UN Security Council resolution on Syria with Russia, Assad's ally and main arms supplier, and wanted to create humanitarian corridors to ease the plight of civilians caught up in the violence.           

Army shelling and sniper fire have killed at least five people and wounded 50 in Hama in the last 36 hours, according to a statement by activists in the city, 240 kms (150 miles) north of Damascus.          

"Hama is besieged by tanks and ... armour. No civilian movement is allowed in the northern section of the city. A large campaign of arrests and house to house searches is under way to scare inhabitants and prevent them from sheltering the Free Syrian Army," the statement said, referring to army defectors.  

"Electricity is cut in the neighbourhoods that came under attack. All communications and the Internet in Hama have been severed," said the statement, relayed by opposition sources in contact with the city by satellite phone.      

Tight media restrictions have made it impossible to confirm the accounts of the opposition or those of the authorities who say security forces are battling "terrorists" across the country.   

The state news agency said security forces "chased and fought with an armed terrorist group in the Hamidiya neighbourhood of Hama that has been terrifying citizens" and arrested some of its members, who had automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenades.      

Artillery shelled parts of Homs for the 13th day in a row. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist group, said at least four people were killed on Wednesday by army fire  concentrated on Baba Amro district, a Sunni neighbourhood.           

Sunni districts of Homs have been at the forefront of opposition to Assad, who belongs to the minority Alawite sect that has dominated Syria for the last five decades.

In Damascus, troops killed at least two youth when they swept into the Barzeh district, searching houses and making arrests, witnesses said.