HAMA, SYRIA ? Along a broad, tree-lined avenue in a seemingly quiet residential neighborhood of this restive city, a fresh, foot-long scar in the asphalt bears testimony to something that has become apparent in recent weeks: The eight-month-old Syrian uprising is gradually turning into an armed insurgency.
The hole was gouged by a small bomb hidden in a garbage bin that exploded as a police car passed. Moments later, gunmen hiding in a nearby park opened fire on the police before fleeing into the bushes, according to Syrian officials and residents of the neighborhood.
It was by no means a major attack. One policeman was hit in the neck by a bullet, and is expected to recover. Another lost his hearing. Windows shattered nearby were swiftly repaired.
Yet the violence here, though still relatively small scale, seems to signal a transformational moment in what is proving to be the most intractable and complex of the Arab revolts.
Officials and residents interviewed on a recent, government-supervised visit say similar attacks are now happening on a nightly basis in Hama. The explosions echo through the streets of a city whose name had become synonymous with the power of peaceful protests until tanks moved in to crush the uprising in August.
?Every day there is something. Even sometimes twice a day,? said Osama Janoudi, 29, who witnessed the recent bomb-and-gun attack against the police from his office across the street. ?Armed men are attacking the police and I don?t know who they are.?
Hama?s governor, Anas Naem, said an average of three members of the security forces die in attacks every week. ?We are having about one attack a night by bombs, ambushes and RPGs, and within minutes the city turns into a ghost town,? he said.
The government-supervised visit to Hama came before the announcement this week of an Arab League peace plan under which Syria agreed to withdraw its troops from residential areas, release detainees and permit peaceful protests.
But the deaths of at least 20 people Friday, most of them shot during anti-government demonstrations, signaled that Syria does not intend to halt its crackdown against opponents ? whom it has always maintained are armed.
That even a small number of them now appear to be so is likely to further complicate the quest for a settlement. The Free Syrian Army, a group of defected army soldiers that has claimed responsibility for many recent attacks, called off a ceasefire on Friday night, and pledged to intensify its operations in response to the latest shootings.
?The regime is a liar and is trying to buy time with the Arab League and the international community,? said the Free Syrian Army?s leader, Col. Riad al-Asaad, speaking by telephone from Turkey. ?Now we will escalate our operations until this regime is toppled.?
On Friday, the government offered an amnesty to citizens who handed over weapons, but in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said she ?wouldn?t advise anybody to turn themselves in to regime authorities at the moment.?
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=8872e4f850a1aed55a69e4c50e1d2ca6
disney world news 2011 elvis world news japan elvis world news japan 2006 eric king world news eric sprott king world news
No comments:
Post a Comment