Four Syrian Soldiers Reported Killed in Escape Attempt

By NADA BAKRI

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian security forces killed four soldiers on Monday as they attempted to escape a military camp, and the army tightened its grip on towns across the country to quell dissent against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

Activists and residents said that the army sent reinforcements to the central city of Homs and to several villages on its outskirts on Monday. The deployment came after reports that soldiers who had deserted had set ambushes for the military and were attacking checkpoints run by security forces and armed men in plainclothes loyal to the Assad government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a human rights group in London, said the four soldiers were killed in the northern province of Idlib, near the Turkish border, and that seven others were arrested as they also tried to leave the military camp. Idlib has been a center of the protests. Activists also reported the defections of dozens of soldiers in Hama, in central Syria, and in Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast.

There were conflicting reports about the number of civilians who were killed, and activists said that security forces attacked several neighborhoods in Homs, including Baba Amr, which has been under siege for more than a week and is suffering from shortages of food, water and medical equipment.

The uprising started in mid-March as a peaceful movement inspired by the street demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia that toppled the governments there. But as the death toll from the brutal military crackdown has increased, many have warned that the movement may turn into an armed struggle.

“Protests alone are not enough,” said a Homs resident in his 60s who asked not to be quoted by name because of fears for his safety. “We must do something more than that, and that is the best way forward.”

The state news agency said that officials in Homs had found weapons, explosives, ammunition and stolen military uniforms in a car. Some of the weapons were Israeli, it said, without providing details. Syria remains formally at war with Israel.

The agency also reported that authorities confiscated weapons, explosives and ammunition, including 10,000 bullets, in Nasib, a village near the Jordanian border where activists said they had seen large demonstrations in the past week. Activists said at least a dozen people were arrested there on Monday.

The government blames the unrest on a foreign conspiracy to divide the country and says it is battling armed groups who have killed at least 700 police officers and soldiers in the past six months.

The United States and its allies in Europe have repeatedly called on Mr. Assad to step down and have imposed strict economic sanctions on his government.

Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Mouallem, who was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, accused foreign governments of trying to create tension in his country.

“How can we otherwise explain media provocations, financing and arming religious extremism?” Mr. Mouallem said. “What purpose could this serve other than total chaos that would dismember Syria, and consequently adversely affect its neighbors.”

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Baltimore Nonviolence Center

Tuesday, September 27, 2011