Syrian army defectors kill 27 soldiers in bloody attack

SOME 27 Syrian government soldiers were killed yesterday in an attack by defectors from the country’s military, the single biggest death toll that regime troops have suffered in the nine-month-old uprising against president Bashar al-Assad.

The fighting took place around dawn in the southern province of Daraa, where the rebellion against Mr Assad’s authoritarian regime began.

Attacks by army defectors have been escalating in recent weeks, raising concerns that the country is headed toward civil war. Sanctions by western powers and the Arab League have added to the growing pressure on Mr Assad from within Syria.

Defectors from the Free Syrian Army, whose leaders are based in neighbouring Turkey, fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a bus carrying police officers into the town of Busra al-Harir, killing 12 of them, said an activist based nearby. That set off clashes with an accompanying force of soldiers. The defectors killed 13 of them, said the activist, Omar.

The fighters then killed two more soldiers at a checkpoint, he said, adding that Busra al-Harir is home to about 300 army defectors who have been clashing with regime forces daily for nearly a week. “The army was shelling the town with tanks shortly before the attack by insurgents occurred,” Omar said.

Syrian troops are usually accompanied by police officers in buses who round up people after the army enters an area.

The United Nations raised its death toll for the Syrian uprising substantially this week, saying more than 5,000 people have now been killed.

Mr Assad’s regime is growing more isolated, with mounting international sanctions to punish his regime for its bloody crackdown that has mostly targeted unarmed, peaceful protesters. Turkey, once a close trade partner with Syria, has imposed penalties, spoken out against Mr Assad’s crackdown and accepted Syrian refugees.

Turkey also hosts Syrian opposition figures and commanders of the Free Syrian Army.

Syria’s former ambassador to Sweden has also fled to Turkey to join the opposition, Syria’s foreign ministry said yesterday.

The ministry said in a statement that he was fired in Stockholm in 2008 and accused him of profiteering, forgery, exploiting his post and fraud.

Also yesterday, Human Rights Watch issued a report alleging that dozens of Syrian military commanders and officials authorised or gave direct orders for widespread killings, torture and illegal arrests during the wave of anti-government protests.

The 88-page report by the New York-based group is based on interviews with defectors from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies. It identifies 74 commanders and officials.

Anna Neistat, associate director for emergencies at Human Rights Watch, said: “Defectors gave us names, ranks, and positions of those who gave the orders to shoot and kill. Each and every official named in this report, up to the very highest levels of the Syrian government, should answer for their crimes against the Syrian people.”

All of the defectors interviewed said their commanders gave standing orders to stop the overwhelmingly peaceful protests throughout the country “by all means necessary”. They understood the phrase as an authorisation to use lethal force, especially because they had been given live ammunition.

About half said the commanders of their units or other officers also gave them direct orders to fire at protesters or bystanders and reassured them that they would not be held accountable.