DAMASCUS: Syrian police used tear gas to disperse some 70,000 people who took to the streets of Homs on Tuesday as Arab observers visited there, a day after dozens of people died in an ongoing crackdown on dissent.
“More than 70,000 demonstrators tried to enter Al-Saa square in the center of the city of Homs, then security agents used tear gas to disperse them,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
At the same time, some demonstrators were fired on with live ammunition as they made their way to the square. Four were wounded, with one seriously so.
According to the Observatory, separate demonstrations were held elsewhere in the city, aimed at “exposing the ill practices and crimes of the regime.”
Before joining the march on Al-Saa square, tens of thousands staged a sit-in in the Al-Khalidiyeh neighborhood, said the Observatory, which also reported demonstrations in the districts of Bab Dreib and Jub al-Jandali.
The protests came as Arab League observers visited the flashpoint city to monitor a deal to end a nine-month crackdown on anti-regime protests.
Following the reported killings of 34 civilians in Homs’ Baba Amro district on Monday, residents held funerals in nearby Kefer Ayia for some of the dead, and were fired on by security services, the Observatory said.
Activists said that the military pulled its tanks back from one district ahead of the Arab team’s arrival, only to hide them inside government zones from which they could be redeployed within minutes.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, meanwhile, reported that saboteurs blew up a gas pipeline in Homs province, where Syria’s regime has been trying for months to crush dissent and mutinous soldiers.
Protesters appeared to have been emboldened by the presence of the observers, headed by veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer Gen. Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi.
“Till now, they [the authorities] have been very cooperative,” Dabi told Agence France-Presse by telephone before holding talks with Gov. Ghassan Abdel Al of Homs.
A video posted by the Observatory on YouTube showed residents of Baba Amro pleading with Dabi to go in and see the devastation.
“The delegation of observers entered Baba Amro, accompanied by people from the government, but did not meet the residents,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France-Presse.
According to Syrian television channel Dunia, the observers also visited the Bab Sebaa district, where they “assessed the damage carried out by terrorist groups.”
“They also met with relatives of martyrs and a person who had been abducted” by these groups, said Dunia, which is close to the regime, adding that many people decried the “conspiracy against Syria” to the monitors.
Western governments and human rights watchdogs blame Assad’s regime for the bloodshed.
The observers were also due to travel to the protest hubs of Hama, near Homs, and Idlib in the northwest, close to the border with Turkey, the television station said without saying when.
“More than 70,000 demonstrators tried to enter Al-Saa square in the center of the city of Homs, then security agents used tear gas to disperse them,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
At the same time, some demonstrators were fired on with live ammunition as they made their way to the square. Four were wounded, with one seriously so.
According to the Observatory, separate demonstrations were held elsewhere in the city, aimed at “exposing the ill practices and crimes of the regime.”
Before joining the march on Al-Saa square, tens of thousands staged a sit-in in the Al-Khalidiyeh neighborhood, said the Observatory, which also reported demonstrations in the districts of Bab Dreib and Jub al-Jandali.
The protests came as Arab League observers visited the flashpoint city to monitor a deal to end a nine-month crackdown on anti-regime protests.
Following the reported killings of 34 civilians in Homs’ Baba Amro district on Monday, residents held funerals in nearby Kefer Ayia for some of the dead, and were fired on by security services, the Observatory said.
Activists said that the military pulled its tanks back from one district ahead of the Arab team’s arrival, only to hide them inside government zones from which they could be redeployed within minutes.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, meanwhile, reported that saboteurs blew up a gas pipeline in Homs province, where Syria’s regime has been trying for months to crush dissent and mutinous soldiers.
Protesters appeared to have been emboldened by the presence of the observers, headed by veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer Gen. Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi.
“Till now, they [the authorities] have been very cooperative,” Dabi told Agence France-Presse by telephone before holding talks with Gov. Ghassan Abdel Al of Homs.
A video posted by the Observatory on YouTube showed residents of Baba Amro pleading with Dabi to go in and see the devastation.
“The delegation of observers entered Baba Amro, accompanied by people from the government, but did not meet the residents,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France-Presse.
According to Syrian television channel Dunia, the observers also visited the Bab Sebaa district, where they “assessed the damage carried out by terrorist groups.”
“They also met with relatives of martyrs and a person who had been abducted” by these groups, said Dunia, which is close to the regime, adding that many people decried the “conspiracy against Syria” to the monitors.
Western governments and human rights watchdogs blame Assad’s regime for the bloodshed.
The observers were also due to travel to the protest hubs of Hama, near Homs, and Idlib in the northwest, close to the border with Turkey, the television station said without saying when.
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