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28 March 2024

Syria's Assad says military operations halted

Published
By AFP

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that military and police operations against pro-democracy protesters have stopped, but activists reported more bloodshed overnight.

Local activists said two protesters were shot dead by pro-Assad militiamen on Wednesday after nightly Ramadan prayers in the city of Homs, and security forces carried out raids on districts of Hama and the capital Damascus.

President Bashar al Assad, meanwhile, met with the central committee of the ruling Baath party, in power since 1963, for the first time since protests erupted in mid-March against his regime, the state-run SANA news agency reported.

A defiant Assad told the committee that Syria "will remain strong and resilient" despite international pressure, adding that he had promised reforms not because of outside pressure but "because Syrians were convinced of their necessity."

But in defiance of growing international condemnation, hundreds of Syrian security services raided homes in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia on Wednesday, activists said.

In the central city of Homs, nine people, including two people gunned down outside a mosque in the city's Wa'ar district and a civilian shot dead by a sniper in the city's Armenian neighbourhood, were killed by security forces, activists in the city said.

In a village in Idlib province near the border with Turkey, security forces shot dead a man standing on his balcony, the Observatory said.

It added that security forces in Damascus carried out dawn raids in Rukn Eddin district, where electricity was cut off, and arrested dozens of activists. Dozens more were detained overnight on the outskirts of the capital.

Since Sunday, more than 30 civilians have been killed in Latakia in a military offensive during which gunboats went into action for the first time since the start of pro-democracy revolts in mid-March, according to activists.

SANA has denied any maritime operation and quoted a military official saying security forces were "hunting armed men" in Latakia districts "who opened fire on residents."

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees reported that more than half of the 10,000 refugees of Ramel camp in southern Latakia had fled under fire from Latakia districts.

Arab countries, Jordan Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, alongside European countries and the United States, are to ask the United Nations' top human rights body to hold a special session on the deteriorating human rights situation in Syria, diplomats in Geneva said.


UN rights chief to call for ICC Syria probe: sources

The UN rights chief is expected to tell the Security Council on Thursday that the international war crimes court should investigate Syria's deadly crackdown, diplomatic sources said.

The 15-nation council is to meet on the Syria crisis amid growing concern over President Bashar Al Assad's military assault on pro-democracy protests.

The UN official "is likely to suggest that the International Criminal Court would be appropriate," a diplomatic source said.

The UN human rights department "is expected to conclude that the allegations are so serious, and credible, that national level investigation conducted by the Syrians will be insufficient," added the source.

Only the Security Council can refer the Syria case to the ICC, which is based in The Hague.


US slaps travel restrictions on Syrian diplomats

Meanwhile the United States said on Wednesday that travel restrictions had been placed on Syrian diplomats living in Washington, in a tit-for-tat measure after a similar move by Damascus earlier this month.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said it was "usual practice to match restrictions" put on US diplomats "with similar restrictions," after Syria slapped travel bans on Washington's envoys amid the increasingly violent crackdown on dissent in the country.

The Syrian embassy in Washington is henceforth "required to obtain the Department of State's approval prior" to its diplomats or visiting officials travelling outside the metropolitan area, she said.