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Violence continues in Syria amid more diplomatic efforts to solve yearlong crisis

21 April 2012 03:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Violence continued Friday in Syria and claimed the lives of at least 20 people, as the international community is mulling over sending more observers to monitor the tenuous cease-fire brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Ten law-enforcement personnel were killed Friday when an explosive device weighing 100 kilograms ripped through their bus at the Saham Golan area in Syria’s southern Daraa province, state- run SANA news agency reported.

Also in Daraa Friday, another explosive device was detonated at al-Kark al-Sharqi area, killing five security agents, said SANA.

In the central city of Hama, a sniper on Friday evening shot dead a security agent from above a residential building near al- Bahreh roundabout.

Moreover, SANA said a suicide bomber detonated a booby-trapped car he was driving near a law-enforcement patrol near Maardas bridge in Hama, killing two law-enforcement personnel and injuring 17 others.

Quoting a source in the area, SANA said the suicide bomber drove his car right into where the law-enforcement forces were stationed and detonated it, causing significant damage to the road, the bridge and nearby private properties.

In the northern Aleppo province, five civilians were killed and 19 others were injured in two separate assaults at al-Halwaniyeh roundabout and al-Bab district in the city.

Meanwhile, the private al-Ekhbaria TV said unidentified gunmen fired a mortar shell at al-Serian church in the central Homs province, giving no further details.

On the opposition side, activists said the government troops shelled and attacked several areas Friday, killing at least 11 civilians.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government troops fired mortar rounds at al-Khaldiyah neighborhood in the central city of Homs Friday. It said eight people were killed Friday in Homs alone.

Opposition activist group Local Coordination Committees said 27 people were killed Friday, including nine in Homs or the northern Idlib province.

The opposition’s accounts could not be verified.

Anti-government protests erupted Friday in several Syrian cities with calls for the downfall of the current leadership.

The latest violence cast a dim shadow over the prospect of the UN-backed cease-fire in Syria, which technically went into effect last week.

In Geneva, a spokesman for Annan said Friday that the situation in Syria is not good and there are casualties and incidents every day.

He said two more cease-fire observers will arrive in Syria on Monday and the United Nations hopes to have 30 observers in the country next week.

The Syrian government has accepted a six-point plan and a cease- fire brokered by Annan to put an end to the Syrian crisis which started in March 2011.

Annan’s six-point plan, widely backed by in international community, calls for the withdrawal of heavy weapons and troops from population centers, a daily halt of fighting for the delivery of humanitarian aid and treatment for the wounded, as well as talks between the government and opposition.

To monitor the cease-fire, an advance observers’ team arrived in Syria Sunday. The team toured several areas in Syria and signed an agreement with the government to regulate the observer mission.

According to Annan’s spokesman, there are currently seven observers working on the ground in Syrian. They have visited a lot of locations during the past five days, contacting with Syrian military and political officials and UN humanitarian colleagues, and have also been preparing for the arrival of the larger group of monitors.

He said they will be ready to deploy a full mission of up to 300 observers as soon as they are authorized by the UN Security Council.

The preliminary agreement signed with the Syrian government Thursday guarantees the monitors’ freedom of movement and communication, the spokesman said.

"There was, what we believe to be, a genuine desire on the Syrian side to conclude this agreement and to support the deployment of monitors," he said.

Also on Friday in Geneva, diplomats from different countries discussed the humanitarian situation in Syria and agreed to a draft plan to provide 180 million U.S. dollars of aid to about 1 million people in Syria.

The United Nations says some 230,000 Syrians have been displaced from their homes and more than 9,000 others have been killed since the eruption of unrest in Syria a year ago.

The Western powers accused the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of committing atrocities against the opposition and repeatedly called on him to step aside. The United States and the European Union have imposed several sets of sanctions that targeted almost all vital sectors in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Thursday for a new UN resolution to impose an arms embargo and other stronger measures against Syria if it fails to abide by the UN-brokered cease-fire.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday the EU was ready to continue to impose sanctions and restrictive measures as long as what she called the "repression" continued in Syria.

The EU sanctions, which will take effect on April 23, ban export of luxuries and some raw materials to Syria.

On the other hand, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Friday that it is unacceptable that the EU is to impose new unilateral sanctions against Syria.

Only the UN Security Council has the right to impose international sanctions, Lukashevich said, adding that sanctions would make the situation in Syria even more unpredictable and grave.