Rebels assassinate Syrian general

By BASSEM MROUE
Published on Sunday 12 February 2012 00:00

A GENERAL in the Syrian army has been assassinated in Damascus in the first killing of a high ranking military officer in the capital since the uprising against president Bashar al-Assad’s regime began almost a year ago.

The attack by three gunmen is a sign that the escalating violence in Syria is spreading to the tightly-controlled capital, which has remained relatively quiet compared to other cities.

Though there was no immediate claim of responsibility, it could also indicate that rebel soldiers, who have risen up in numerous cities and towns, are trying to step up action in Damascus.

Sana, the state-run news agency, said three gunmen fired at Brigadier General Issa al-Khouli yesterday as he left his home in the Damascus neighbourhood of Rukn-Eddine. Al-Khouli was a doctor and the chief of a military hospital in the capital.

Such assassinations are not uncommon outside Damascus and army officers have been killed in the past, mostly in the provinces of Homs and Idlib, where anti-regime sentiment is most intense.

Violence in other parts of Syria left at least 11 people dead yesterday as regime troops pushed into rebel-held neighbourhoods in the west central city of Homs and shelled the mountain town of Zabadani, north of Damascus.

The United Nations estimates that 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began last March. But it made its last assessment in January, when the UN stopped counting because the chaos has made it all but impossible to check the figures. Hundreds are reported to have been killed since then.

The Assad regime continues to claim terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to destabilise Syria are behind the uprising, not people seeking to transform an authoritarian regime. The Syrian government claims more than 2,000 soldiers and police officers have been killed by so-called terrorists since March.

Syria’s turmoil began with peaceful protests against Assad’s rule sparking a fierce crackdown by his regime. But it has since grown more militarised as army defectors and armed protesters formed a group known as the Free Syrian Army. The FSA has carried out attacks on the military and sought to secure control of opposition-dominated areas, as well as defend against regime assault.

After Russia and China vetoed a western and Arab attempt at the UN to pressure Assad to step down last weekend, the FSA’s commander said there was no choice now but armed force to oust the president. Western and Arab countries are considering forming a coalition to help Syria’s opposition, though so far there is no sign they intend to give direct aid to the FSA. The president of Iran, one of Assad’s key allies, warned Arab countries yesterday not to give aid to the opposition.

Speaking to tens of thousands of supporters in Tehran on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said countries in the region that have never held free elections are trying to write a “prescription for freedom and elections for others” with the help of the United States. “This is a very bitter and the most ridiculous joke of history,” Ahmadinejad said.

For the past week, Syrian forces have been bombarding rebel-held neighbourhoods in Homs, aiming to regain control of one of the main cities involved in the uprising. Activists say more than 400 people have been killed in the campaign.

Yesterday, Syrian troops resumed their crackdown on the Baba Amr district of Homs, killing at least four people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Another activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees, said at least 15 people were killed in Baba Amr yesterday.

Troops and rebel soldiers battled in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, said Mohammed Doumany, an activist there. The Observatory said troops stormed the Grand Mosque in Douma and detained a number of people inside.

The Observatory also reported a rare clash between troops and defectors late on Friday in the northern Damascus neighbourhood of Qaboun but had no details. It said troops shot dead an activist in the area.The group also said three people were killed yesterday in the rebel-held mountain town of Zabadani near the Lebanon border when troops shelled it, and reported another three killed in the southern province of Daraa when troops conducted a sweep in the village of Msaifra. The violence came a day after two suicide car bombers struck security compounds in the northern city of Aleppo, killing 28 people. The blasts were the first significant violence in an industrial centre that has largely stood by Assad during the 11-month uprising against his rule.

Anti-Assad activists denied any involvement and accused the regime of setting off Friday’s blasts to smear the opposition. State media touted the bombings as proof the regime faces a terror campaign.

In neighbouring Turkey, interior minister Idris Naim Sahin said late on Friday that five Turks, including a former intelligence officer, were being questioned for allegedly kidnapping and handing over to Damascus a Syrian army officer, who had sought refuge the country.

Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmoush was one of the first officers to defect after the uprising began. Harmoush, of the Free Officers Movement, posted videos urging the army to stand by the people instead of the regime and saying he had been ordered by his commanders to fire on protesters.

After his return to Syria, state television aired an interview with him in September in which he retracted his earlier comments.

His fate since is unknown. Meanwhile, Lebanese security officials say clashes between pro- and anti-Syria gunmen in a northern Lebanese city have left one person dead and 12 wounded.

The officials say the two sides fired on each other from two rival neighbourhoods in Tripoli, one dominated by Sunnis, the other by Alawites, a Shiite offshoot sect. They say clashes started on Friday night and continued sporadically yesterday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Lebanese factions have been deeply divided over the Syria crisis, and tensions have intensified with the regime’s siege of the west-central Syrian city of Homs this week.

Assad’s regime is dominated by Alawites, while the uprising against him has been led by Sunnis.

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