Syrian activists look for external support

Damascus: After withstanding five months of a brutal crackdown by Syrian security forces, Syria's opposition activists are pinning their hopes on an accelerated international intervention to help topple the regime of Bashar Al Assad, the Syrian president.

The activists say they want to maintain a peaceful opposition to the Al Assad regime, but without external support to help protect them, they fear the confrontation will worsen in the months ahead and the country could slip into civil war.

"The regime is going to do more killing, so the only way we can win is to have neutral observers and lots of them in Syria to monitor what's happening," said Ahmad, a young opposition activist from the port city of Baniyas who escaped to Lebanon last week.

"We don't want to go for the option of an armed struggle against the regime. But if the international community does not step in, we are afraid that it will lead to civil war."

The crackdown by the Syrian security forces has left around 2,200 dead, according to the United Nations, but neither side is showing any sign of yielding. Instead of crushing the uprising in its early stages, the use of military force only galvanised opposition to Al Assad's rule and exacerbated sectarian relations in the country.

The United States and the European Union have slapped sanctions on key Syrian leaders and the EU is set to impose a ban on Syrian oil imports to European markets. But there is little appetite for a direct intervention in Syria, similar to the Nato support mission in Libya against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

The experiences of Ahmad, the dissident from Baniyas, underlines just how dangerous it has become to be an opposition activist working in Syria.

When the army deployed into Ahmad's hometown Baniyas he found himself on the run and his family forced into hiding.

Capture was inevitable, so Ahmad spent a month slowly making his way from Baniyas to the border with Lebanon, 64km to the south. He slipped past Syrian army patrols one night last week and linked up with other Syrian activists in Tripoli.

Ahmad and his colleagues are still wary, however. Syria exerts strong influence over Lebanon and many political factions are supportive of the Al Assad regime. Cut off from daily opposition activities in their homeland, Ahmad and his friends are hoping international pressure on Al Assad will tip the balance in their favor.

The question now is how much longer can the opposition protesters maintain their peaceful stance before resorting to arms. Ahmad and his friends say they worry about the prospect of civil war, but insist that the Al Assad regime will be removed eventually.

— Christian Science Monitor

 Worsening situation: 16 more die in violence

At least 16 people died in violence across Syria yesterday, activists and state media said, as the visiting Red Cross chief sought access to those detained in five months of anti-regime protests.

Arab League chief Nabeel Al Arabi, meanwhile, said Syria has agreed to host him for a visit which he would probably make this week. In the latest bloodshed, six soldiers and three civilians were killed when an "armed group" opened fire on a bus in Maharda, central Syria, state news agency Sana reported. "Nine people, among them an officer, were killed and 17 others wounded this morning in Maharda in an ambush by an armed group who opened fire on a bus carrying soldiers and labourers going to work," it said.

Sana said a security patrol killed three of the assailants.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which groups anti-regime activists on the ground, said security forces shot dead three people in the Khan Sheikhwan area of Idlib province in northwestern Syria. The security forces encircled hospitals "to prevent the wounded from being brought in for treatment," it charged.

Kidnap

On Friday, Sana said gunmen in Khan Sheikhwan had kidnapped a corporal with Syria's internal security services, Wael Ali, while a woman was shot dead in Maaret Al Numan in an operation to arrest her husband.
 

— AFP