Flashpoint Damascus
January 22, 2012
Syrian rebels battled state security forces in a suburb near the capital, Damascus, on Saturday as the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) lobbied the Arab League to end its month-old monitoring mission and refer the crisis to the UN Security Council.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group that has tracked the uprising against President Bashar al Assad since it began in March, reported that rebels seized parts of Douma - located 14 kilometers from Damascus - and then subsequently retreated to their hideouts.
"It seems they chose not to hold onto the territory, most likely because it could offer the regime an excuse to storm the area," Rami Abdul-Rahman, the director of the Observatory, told the news agency Reuters.
The Observatory also reported clashes between rebels and security forces in the Jabal al Zawiyah region near the Turkish border and in the northern town of Maaret al-Numan. The clashes in Maaret al-Numan killed nine army personnel and one rebel, according to Abdul-Rahman.
The official SANA news agency said a "terrorist group" had set off two explosive devices on the road between the northwestern cities of Idlib and Ariha killing 14 prisoners and wounding 26. The Observatory confirmed the incident, putting the death toll at 15. But activists in Idlib were claiming that the truck had actually contained dead bodies, according to reports by the news agency Reuters.
Fate of Arab monitors
The uprising against President Assad has become increasingly militarized in recent months as soldiers defect and take up arms to stop the government crackdown on the opposition. Over 5,000 people have been killed since the unrest began last March, according to the UN.
In response to the violence, the Arab League dispatched an observer mission in late December to monitor whether or not the conditions of an Arab peace plan were being implemented. The plan required the Syrian government to halt the killings, withdraw the military from the streets, release detainees, allow media and monitors access to the country, and engage in dialogue with the opposition.
Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi, the head of the 165-strong monitoring team, reportedly wants the monitoring mission to be strengthened and extended.
But the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group, has called for the mission to be scrapped. SNC spokesman Mohammed Sermini told the news agency AFP that the group wants to "transfer the Syria file to the UN Security Council," accusing the Assad regime of "committing genocide and crimes against humanity."
Author: Spencer Kimball (Reuters, AP, AFP)
Editor: Andy Valvur