Europe

Home page

Europe

Britain, France seek for sanctions against Syrian president

14 May 2011 21:36 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Britain and France are seeking to impose a EU travel ban and asset freeze on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and four officials, close to him, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

Last week Britain and France expressed their concern about the EU’s move to impose sanctions on 13 Syrian authorities, except Assad himself.

However, an unknown EU official said that including Assad into the EU sanctions list was "only a matter of days."

According to UN human right organizations, up to 850 people have been killed since the pro-democracy protests against the repressive rule of Assad began in mid-March.

On Friday, over 3,000 protestors took to the streets in the suburbs of Damascus, Idleb and Homs, despite two days of violent crackdowns on demonstrators.

Earlier this week security forces conducted house-to-house raids in Syria’s third largest city of Homs, the coastal town of Baniya, the capital Damascus, and the southern city of Deraa

About 2,000 students rallied against the government raids late on Wednesday in a university campus in Syria’s largest city of Aleppo. The protest was dispersed by police and pro-government students.

Rights activists describe Wednesday as one of the bloodiest days in the unrest, saying 22 people were killed, including 13 in the southern town of Al Harra, which was shelled by tanks.

Syrian authorities claim the protests are organized by Islamic extremists seeking to seize power in the country.