Activists Report Fierce Clashes in Eastern Syria
Activists Report Fierce Clashes in Eastern Syria – ABC News.
Activists say Syrian military forces have clashed with army defectors using machine guns and heavy weaponry in the country’s east.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 10 Syrian soldiers were killed in the clashes that took place late Friday in the town of Deir el-Zour.
The group said Saturday that there were also several casualties among the group of armed dissidents known as the Free Syrian Army.
The Local Coordination Committees activist network also reported fierce clashes, followed by house-to-house raids by troops searching for defectors.
Syria’s 8-month uprising has grown increasingly militarized.
On Friday, the military blamed terrorists for an attack a day earlier in the central city of Homs, saying six pilots and four others were killed in an ambush.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian military vowed Friday to “cut every evil hand” that targets the country’s security, a defiant stance by the regime as it faces the possibility of sweeping economic sanctions from the Arab League.
The military statement could signal darker days to come in an eight-month revolt against President Bashar Assad that is turning more violent by the day.
Until recently in the uprising, most of the bloodshed came as security forces fired on mainly peaceful protests. But there have been growing reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting Assad’s forces — a development that some say plays into the regime’s hands by giving government troops a pretext to crack down with overwhelming force.
“The choice offered by the regime appears clear-cut: preservation of Assad’s rule or collective destruction,” the International Crisis Group said in a report this week.
Assad blames the unrest on a foreign plot to destabilize Syria, saying extremists and terrorists — not true reformers — are driving the calls to oust him. On Friday, the military blamed terrorists for an attack a day earlier in Homs, saying six elite pilots and four technical officers were killed in an ambush.
“The general command of the armed forces sees that enemies of the country are behind this terrorist act,” the military said. “The armed forces will continue to carry out its mission … and will cut every evil hand that targets Syrian blood.”
Although many Syrians resent police and intelligence agencies that they blame for oppressing the uprising, they respect the armed forces, which is seen as a bulwark against Israel.
Unlike the armies of Tunisia and Egypt, Syria’s military has stood fiercely by the country’s leader as Assad faces down an extraordinary protest movement.
In the past 40 years, Assad and his father before him stacked key military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect — an offshoot of Shiite Islam — ensuring the loyalty of the armed forces by melding the fate of the army and the regime. Syria is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.
“Many regime supporters are terrified about their future and thus liable to resist till the bitter end,” the Brussels-based ICG said in its report. “A majority of Alawite officials, security officers and ordinary citizens, along with segments of the Christian community and some secularists, have become convinced that their fate is either to kill or be killed.”
Explore posts in the same categories: Uncategorized
WarSclerotic 
November 26, 2011 at 11:55 AM
Reblogged this on Vasile Roata.