Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Home
Business
Business Home
Economy
Technology
Media
Small Business
Legal
Deals
Earnings
Summits
Business Video
The Freeland File
Markets
Markets Home
U.S. Markets
European Markets
Asian Markets
Global Market Data
Indices
M&A
Stocks
Bonds
Currencies
Commodities
Futures
Funds
peHUB
World
World Home
U.S.
Brazil
China
Euro Zone
Japan
Mexico
Russia
India Insight
World Video
Reuters Investigates
Decoder
Politics
Politics Home
Election 2012
Issues 2012
Candidates 2012
Tales from the Trail
Political Punchlines
Supreme Court
Politics Video
Tech
Technology Home
MediaFile
Science
Tech Video
Tech Tonic
Opinion
Opinion Home
Chrystia Freeland
John Lloyd
Felix Salmon
Jack Shafer
David Rohde
Bernd Debusmann
Nader Mousavizadeh
Lucy P. Marcus
David Cay Johnston
Bethany McLean
Edward Hadas
Hugo Dixon
Ian Bremmer
Mohamed El-Erian
Lawrence Summers
Susan Glasser
The Great Debate
Steven Brill
Geraldine Fabrikant
Jack & Suzy Welch
Breakingviews
Equities
Credit
Private Equity
M&A
Macro & Markets
Politics
Breakingviews Video
Money
Money Home
Tax Break
Global Investing
MuniLand
Unstructured Finance
Linda Stern
Mark Miller
John Wasik
James Saft
Analyst Research
Alerts
Watchlist
Portfolio
Stock Screener
Fund Screener
Personal Finance Video
Money Clip
Investing 201
Life
Health
Sports
Arts
Faithworld
Business Traveler
Entertainment
Oddly Enough
Lifestyle Video
Pictures
Pictures Home
Reuters Photographers
Full Focus
Video
Reuters TV
Reuters News
Article
Comments (9)
Slideshow
Video
Full Focus
Photos of the week
Our top photos from the past week. Full Article
Images of January
Best photos of the year 2011
Follow Reuters
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
YouTube
Read
Greek lawmakers approve austerity bill as Athens burns
12 Feb 2012
Greek lawmakers pass austerity bill as Athens burns
12 Feb 2012
U.S. Navy: Iran prepares suicide bomb boats in Gulf
12 Feb 2012
Exclusive: Mortgage problems? Turn your house into a billboard
12 Feb 2012
Adele triumphs at Grammys with six wins
|
2:12am EST
Discussed
503
FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists
215
It’s bailout or chaos, PM Papademos tells Greece
171
House Speaker Boehner vows to stop Obama contraceptive rule
Watched
Whitney Houston's body leaves hotel
Sat, Feb 11 2012
Humanoid robot makes storefront debut in Valentine's experiment
Fri, Feb 10 2012
Huge baby shocks parents
Tue, Feb 7 2012
Arabs pledge support for Syria opposition
Tweet
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
Arab League backs Syria opposition, calls for peacekeepers
Sun, Feb 12 2012
Arabs end Syrian mission, seek joint UN force
Sun, Feb 12 2012
Syrian forces shell Homs ahead of Arab meeting
Sat, Feb 11 2012
Syria forces shell Homs, Saudis push U.N. resolution
Sat, Feb 11 2012
Bombings, bombardments kill across Syria
Fri, Feb 10 2012
Analysis & Opinion
Betting on Syria’s Assad staying in power
Militant Jewish “Price Tag” graffiti daubed on Jerusalem’s Monastery of the Cross
Related Topics
World »
United Nations »
Syria »
Related Video
Hundreds attend funeral in Syria for Aleppo bomb victims
Sun, Feb 12 2012
Violence in Syria spreads north to Aleppo
1 of 16. Syrian tanks are seen in Bab Amro near the city of Homs February 12, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Mulham Alnader/Handout
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Yasmine Saleh
AMMAN/CAIRO |
Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:21am EST
AMMAN/CAIRO (Reuters) - Syrian forces resumed their bombardment of the city of Homs on Monday after Arab countries called for U.N. peacekeepers and pledged their firm support for the opposition battling President Bashar al-Assad.
Opposition campaigners said tank fire was concentrated on two large Sunni Muslim neighborhoods that have been at the forefront of opposition to Assad. They said 23 people were killed on Sunday, prompting street demonstrations across the country in support of Homs.
"Mortar rounds and bombardment from BTRs (infantry fighting vehicles) are heavily hitting Baba Amro. We do not have numbers for any casualties because there is no communication with the district and the live feed camera relaying live footage from there appears to have been knocked out," activist Mohammad al-Hassan old Reuters from Homs.
The authorities say they are fighting "terrorists" in Homs and the rest of the mostly Sunni Muslim country of 21 million.
The official news agency said a "terrorist group" had abducted an army colonel in the Qarabees neighborhood of Homs, without giving a date. It said security forces have confiscated weapons and explosives while chasing terrorists in the city of Hama, which came under a renewed military crackdown this week.
The assault on Homs has spurred Arab countries to ostracize Assad and promise tougher action. At a meeting in Cairo on Sunday, Arab League foreign ministers pledged for the first time to aid the opposition battling to overthrow Assad, from Syria's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated the country since Alawite officers expanded their influence in the military and took power five decades ago.
The League also called on the U.N. Security Council to authorize a peacekeeping force, a challenge to Russia and China which have so far used their veto power to block action by the world body, most recently on Feb 4.
In Homs, government troops concentrated their fire on Baba Amro in the south of the city and al-Waer in the West, which borders the Military College, a main assembly point for tanks and government troops, opposition campaigners said.
"Tank shelling has been non-stop on Baba Amro and the bombardment on al-Wear began overnight," Hassan said by phone.
He said al-Waer, scene of large pro-democracy demonstrations for months, had come under attack in the last several days from pro-Assad militia known as shabbiha.
"We heard that the Free Syrian Army has started responding by attacking roadblocks being manned by shabbiha. Communications with al-Waer have been cut off and the sound of shelling can be now heard," Hassan said.
The Free Syrian Army, led by defectors, has taken the main role in armed opposition to Assad's government. Accounts on the ground are difficult to verify because Syria restricts access by journalists.
The resolution approved by Arab League ministers in Cairo called for "opening communication channels with the Syrian opposition and providing all forms of political and material support to it" - a remarkable statement from a body once known for keeping out of the internal affairs of its members.
The Arab League has turned decisively against Assad, led by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-ruled Gulf monarchies who have long resented Assad's close ties to Shi'ite regional rival Iran.
The resolution did not spell out whether its proposed joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force would involve armed troops, or whether the aid offered to the opposition would include weapons.
If so, it would be the second time in less than a year the Arab League had called for outside intervention in an Arab state. Its decision to back a no-fly zone in Libya last March led to Western bombing that helped bring down Muammar Gaddafi.
Syria's uprising, in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have died, has become one of the bloodiest of the Arab Spring revolts sweeping the region since the end of 2010.
Any peacekeeping mission would require consensus from foreign powers, who have been divided on how to resolve a conflict that is descending into a civil war.
Moscow and Beijing drew strong criticism from the West after they prevented the Security Council from backing an Arab plan that called for Assad to give up his powers. However, Western powers so far have shown no appetite for military action, despite their condemnation of the repression of the uprising.
Syria called the League's resolution "a flagrant departure from the group's charter and a hostile act that targets Syria's security and stability." Assad's government says it is fighting an insurgency by militants funded from abroad, and Arab states have turned against it as part of a regional power grab.
At the United Nations, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson said the U.N. chief supported the "efforts of the League of Arab States to stop the violence in Syria and to seek a peaceful resolution of the crisis that meets the democratic and legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people."
Earlier on Sunday, Tunisia said it would host the first meeting on February 24 of a "Friends of Syria" contact group made up of Arab and other states and backed by the West. A similar Libya contact group played a vital role in coordinating Western and Arab aid to that country's rebels last year.
RAIDS
On Sunday armor-backed troops raided the al-Inshaat district of Homs, which has seen several incursions by loyalist troops over the past week. Tanks ran over civilian cars and troops ransacked houses and burned furniture in the streets as collective punishment, a statement by the Coalition of Free Homs said.
"The regime wants to punish the civilian population for supporting the Free Syrian Army," the statement said.
A Syrian Red Crescent aid convoy had reached Homs and volunteers were distributing food, medical supplies, and blankets to thousands of people affected by the violence, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.
"The population, particularly the wounded and sick, are bearing the brunt of the violence," the ICRC chief in Damascus, Marianne Gasser, said.
Activists said Red Crescent aid teams had been to districts populated by members of Assad's Alawite sect but had not reached Sunni neighborhoods that bore the brunt of shelling.
A YouTube video showed a doctor in the Sunni al-Bayada district with the bodies of three men on the floor, the body of a woman on a table and an injured man on a bed, with no signs of any medical equipment except for an oxygen bottle.
"We do not have any medicine, equipment or staff. The hospital is this four meter (yard) by four meter room," the doctor said.
"The Red Crescent does not come here because the (army) shells it when it tries. Most of cases we receive are dying form bleeding because we don't have any blood units."
A lull in the bombardment earlier in the day prompted anti-Assad rallies in Qusour, Bayada and Khalidua and Bab Houd districts of Homs. Demonstrations also broke out in Houla in the nearby countryside, which has also been under bombardment.
YouTube footage showed hundreds of youths holding shoulders and dancing under white-and-green Syrian flags from the time before Assad's Baath Party took power in a 1963 coup.
"Dignified Homs is dying. The world sold it by its silence, Mothers are suffering, but our dear God does not forget anyone," an activist sings as a crowd dances in front of him.
In the city of Hama, 50 km (28 miles) north of Homs, loyalist forces backed by tanks and armored vehicles killed at least one man when they raided neighborhoods on Sunday near the countryside where the Free Syrian Army has been active.
"It is the third day of such incursions. They fire heavy machineguns and anti-aircraft guns at random the, then they go in and raid houses and arrest dozens of people. The objective is to separate Hama from the countryside," activist Fady al-Jaber said from Hama.
(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Cairo and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Michael Roddy)
World
United Nations
Syria
Related Quotes and News
Company
Price
Related News
Tweet this
Link this
Share this
Digg this
Email
Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (9)
UnlicenseDremel wrote:
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Back to top
Reuters.com
Business
Markets
World
Politics
Technology
Opinion
Money
Pictures
Videos
Site Index
Legal
Bankruptcy Law
California Legal
New York Legal
Securities Law
Support & Contact
Support
Corrections
Advertise With Us
Connect with Reuters
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
RSS
Podcast
Newsletters
Mobile
About
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Copyright
Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider
An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution
A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance
Our next generation legal research platform
Our global tax workstation
Thomsonreuters.com
About Thomson Reuters
Investor Relations
Careers
Contact Us
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.