Antakya/Beirut: A military bombardment of a town in central Syria killed 30 people on Monday on the eve of a scheduled army withdrawal from urban areas, opposition activists said, dashing the prospects of a UN-brokered ceasefire taking hold. Government troops and rebel forces also clashed near Syria’s border with Turkey, activists said.
Two Syrian refugees and a Turkish translator were wounded by gunfire from Syria at a refugee camp in Turkish territory, Turkish officials said, drawing an angry response from the Ankara government.
Syrian soldiers shot dead a cameraman working for Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed television channel on Monday near the border between the two countries, the television channel said.
The unrelenting violence indicated that a peace plan promoted by international envoy Kofi Annan and initially accepted by both sides was in tatters.
Syria was to have started pulling troops out of towns and cities by Tuesday, paving the way for a ceasefire to start 48 hours later. But president Bashar al-Assad on Sunday said his foes must give written guarantees they would stop fighting and lay down their arms — a demand they immediately rejected.
Nor did government forces show any sign they were starting to pull back on Monday. “April 10 has become void,” Turkish deputy foreign minister Naci Koru said in Ankara. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in Brussels that adding new conditions was totally unacceptable. China called on both sides to honour the ceasefire and support Annan’s efforts. Russia, which has defended him in the UNSC and remains Assad’s most important ally, stopped short of pressing him to rein in his army.
Two Syrian refugees and a Turkish translator were wounded by gunfire from Syria at a refugee camp in Turkish territory, Turkish officials said, drawing an angry response from the Ankara government.
Syrian soldiers shot dead a cameraman working for Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed television channel on Monday near the border between the two countries, the television channel said.
The unrelenting violence indicated that a peace plan promoted by international envoy Kofi Annan and initially accepted by both sides was in tatters.
Syria was to have started pulling troops out of towns and cities by Tuesday, paving the way for a ceasefire to start 48 hours later. But president Bashar al-Assad on Sunday said his foes must give written guarantees they would stop fighting and lay down their arms — a demand they immediately rejected.
Nor did government forces show any sign they were starting to pull back on Monday. “April 10 has become void,” Turkish deputy foreign minister Naci Koru said in Ankara. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in Brussels that adding new conditions was totally unacceptable. China called on both sides to honour the ceasefire and support Annan’s efforts. Russia, which has defended him in the UNSC and remains Assad’s most important ally, stopped short of pressing him to rein in his army.
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