Syrian death toll rises as tanks enter coastal city

Syrian troops killed three people in the coastal city of Latakia on Saturday, activists said, in an ongoing onslaught of anti-regime protesters.
Syrian tanks swept into the port city of Latakia and a village near Lebanon amid intense shooting causing residents to flee as the West seeks ways to pressure Damascus to end the violence.
The city has seen large protests against President Bashar Assad’s regime.
The ongoing crackdown on civilian protesters drew criticism from the 57-member state Organization of Islamic Cooperation and several world leaders on Saturday.
Speaking on the telephone, US President Obama and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah repeated their calls for the crackdown to stop, the White House said in a statement.
President Obama also spoke to Britain’s David Cameron and both leaders called for an immediate end to attacks by the Syrian government against protesters demanding the departure of the embattled President Bashar Al Assad, and agreed to “consult on further steps in the days ahead,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, the OIC called on Syrian authorities to “exercise restraint” in their crackdown on anti-regime protesters and offered to mediate in a dialogue, AFP reported.
Saturday’s killings came a day after security forces shot dead 20 people during nationwide marches in which demonstrators demanded that Assad surrender power and vowed defiantly they would “kneel only to God.”
British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two people were killed and 15 wounded in heavy gunfire after around 20 military vehicles entered the Ramle district of Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast, Reuters reported.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the London-based Observatory for Human Rights in Syria, said in a statement early Saturday that 20 tanks and armored personnel carriers deployed around the Al Ramel neighborhood in Latakia as the shooting erupted.
“At 10:30 a.m. heavy gunfire could be heard” in Al-Ramleh, which was at the heart of a “large demonstration calling for the fall of Assad’s regime,” the statement said.
The Observatory said the arrival of troops sparked the exodus of a large number of residents, especially women and children.
It also reported a “wave of arrests” in Latakia on Thursday.
An activist in the central region of Homs said troops backed by two tanks entered the village of Jussiyeh which borders Lebanon, triggering a stampede across the frontier and to neighboring areas.
Military vehicles, meanwhile, swooped on the town of Qusayr, also in Homs province, where security and intelligence services launched an arrest campaign.
“No one was spared. Not even women or children,” said the Observatory.
Security forces backed by tanks have been crushing dissent city by city and town by town since pro-democracy protests erupted in mid-March.
The Observatory says 2,150 people have been confirmed dead since then – 1,744 civilians and 406 members of the security forces.
However the government’s crackdown intensified over the past weeks and activists said at least 16 people were killed on Friday when security forces opened fire on thousands of anti-regime protesters rallied in flashpoint cities after the Ramadan weekly prayers.
State television said “two security agents were shot dead by armed men in Douma,” a suburb of the capital.
The UN Security Council is to hold a special meeting next Thursday to discuss human rights and the humanitarian emergency in Syria, diplomats at the United Nations said.
In a Twitter statement, France’s UN mission said UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay and UN under secretary for humanitarian affairs Valerie Amos, will brief the meeting.
As the West grapples with ways to pressure Damascus into ending the bloodshed, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged countries to stop trading with Syria.
“We urge those countries still buying Syrian oil and gas, those countries still sending Assad weapons… to get on the right side of history,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters.
In an interview with CBS News, she suggested that China and India impose energy sanctions on Syria, and urged Russia to stop selling arms to Damascus.
She also urged the Europeans to impose energy sanctions.
“President Assad has lost the legitimacy to lead and it is clear that Syria would be better off without him,” Clinton told a news conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.
But she stopped short of explicitly urging Assad to step down — a call which US officials have said President Barack Obama’s administration has decided to make, although it has not finalised the timing.
Mrs. Clinton also said the US ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, delivered a “clear message” when he met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Thursday.
“Immediately stop the violence, withdraw your security forces, respond to the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people for a democratic transition in concrete and meaningful ways,” she said, reading out the message.

Source: Al Arabiya with Agencies