Syrian army "attacks protest hub" - BBC News

Last updated at 07: 26 GMT, April 25, 2011 Deraa has been at the epicentre of recent protests in the army of the Syria Syria launched an attack against the city of the South of Deraa, with tanks used for the return of the troopsAccording to activists and non-verified video footage.

An activist was quoted as saying that security forces were "pulling in all directions", and there were unconfirmed victims.

Deraa is where Syrian anti-Government protests began five weeks ago.

New aggression follows reports of repression and arrests in other regions of the country.

An activist for the rights of said human Reuters news agency that security forces had also stormed the suburbs of Damascus in the Duma Monday, to open fire on civilians and stop dozens of people.

Security forces are supposed to be rounding up suspected organizers protest despite the lifting of the State of emergency, last week.

Demonstrators started to call for political reforms last month, but many require now that President Bashar al-Assad resign.

Reported the at least 350 people were killed.

"Cut power".

Activist Abdullah al-Harriri told the AFP news agency that hundreds of security personnel were entered Adraa Monday, supported by tanks and other armoured vehicles.

Continue reading the main story Owen Bennett Jones BBC News, Beirut

These last days of opposition activists have been describing Adraa as liberated territory and two members of Parliament and a local religious leader resigned Saturday to protest against the massacre of demonstrators there.

By sending troops, the Government has demonstrated its determined to regain control of the city. Elsewhere in Syria, in uniform and plainclothes security personnel were patrolling through the streets of towns and villages.

Last week in an attempt to appease protesters, the Government lifted a State of emergency. That is not to stop protests and since the Government uses force to suppress demands for greater freedom.

"Men are pulling in all directions and advancing behind the armour which is their protection", he said.

"The electricity is cut off and telephone communications are virtually impossible."

A resident said diffuser Arabic al-Jazeera that five people had been killed.

Foreign journalists have been prevented from entering the country, making it difficult to verify the information.

But the BBC Owen Bennett-Jones at the nearby Lebanon, explains the use of tanks was not reported elsewhere in Syria and would mark an increase in the Government's response to protests.

According to the latest reports that the Government is absolutely determined to use force to suppress the protest movement, he said.

Death by Jabla

These days activists of the opposition have been describing Adraa as liberated territory and two members of Parliament and a local religious leader resigned Saturday to protest against the massacre of demonstrators there.

Deraa has had the most victims of any city in Syria.

Earlier, at least four people were reported killed in Jabla, a town in the Northwest of 80,000, after security forces opened fire there later Sunday.

At least 95 people were reportedly killed the Syria Friday and another 12 summers Saturday, as a lament came under fire.

Authorities have reacted erratically demonstrations - sometimes promising to allow more democracy and freedoms and other times open fire on demonstrators.

Human Rights Watch campaign group called for an investigation of the United Nations and the international sanctions against the Syria after the massacres of Friday.

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Pace of the attacks in Libya conflict is dividing NATO

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On the eve of two important meetings this week, France and Britain openly called on the alliance and its partners to intensify airstrikes on Libyan government troops to protect civilians, prompting an unusual public retort from NATO's command that it was carrying out the military operation under the terms of the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorized force.

"As long as regime forces continued attacking their own people, we will intervene to protect them," Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard of Canada, the NATO operational commander, said in Naples, Italy. "NATO's resolve is in its mandate to protect the civilian population."

Arriving for talks in Luxembourg with other European leaders, the British foreign minister, William Hague, said that the allies had to "maintain and intensify" the military effort, noting that Britain had already deployed extra ground attack planes.

"of course, it would be welcome if other countries also did the same," Mr. Hague said.

His remarks echoed by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of France, reflected what officials have described as a complex and at times convoluted coalition, with many participating countries refusing to carry out airstrikes against forces on the ground, even as their planes patrol the skies over Libya.

Britain and France, for example, are now flying the bulk of the attack missions, with Norway, Denmark and Canada also striking Libyan targets on the ground. But other countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, are taking less aggressive roles, enforcing the No. - fly zone over Libya or conducting reconnaissance missions, in a nod to political considerations back home.

The varying tactics reflect the different ways in which each country in the coalition views the mission, and how tough it has been to corral all the participants into focused attacks.

In Washington, Obama administration officials sought to tamp down a growing sense of concern among some military analysts that the combination of the Americans' back-seat role, NATO's inexperience in waging has complicated air campaign against moving targets and botched communications with the ragtag rebel army had thrown the mission into disarray. In the past week, NATO pilots were involved in two friendly-fire instances that killed well over a dozen rebel fighters.

Meantime, as some allies privately hope for the return of the American-led ground-attack missions, other coalition partners have expressed concern that their supplies of precision-guided bombs are running low after more than 800 strike missions.

"We have every confidence in NATO's ability to carry out the tasks of enforcing the arms embargo as well as the No. - fly zone and the protection of civilians in Libya," Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said Tuesday. "As the president said, the U.S. and other key partners had capabilities that they brought to this operation upfront, and then our role would diminish as nato stepped up and took command and control of the operation." "And that's what's happened."

The United States has worked hard to limit its role in the Libyan campaign, arguing that it has its plate full with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has also argued that Libya's history and proximity to Europe make it a European problem, and that it was the French, in particular, who had argued for aggressive intervention.

Still, officials in Washington and Europe expressed frustration and worry about the coordination of the campaign, though a senior official of the Obama administration said it was willing to accept the complications inherent in the command of the operation because "there's a huge benefit in having a wider coalition."

The countries involved in the conflict are to hold separate meetings this week to try to maintain a consensus on forcing Col. Qathafi to end attacks on cities held by rebel forces.

In Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday, representatives of one group of allied countries will discuss the diplomatic initiatives now under way, led by the United Nations special envoy for Libya, Abdel Ilah al-Khatib, and African leaders. Libya's former foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, who fled to Britain, is also expected to expected. NATO members begin a meeting the next day in Berlin.

The American delegation to the meetings in Doha will be led by Under Secretary of State William j. Burns. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who met with the Jordanian foreign minister and the emir of Qatar in Washington on Tuesday, will attend the NATO meeting in Berlin.

The separate meetings are themselves a sign of the bifurcated political and military leadership of the coalition, whose members remain divided over the means of the operation, if not the end: a political transition in Libya that sees the removal of Col. Qathafi.

"forming coalitions is complicated enough," the senior administration official said. "sustaining them is sometimes equally complicated." "It requires a lot of hard work and tending."

A European diplomat expressed concern that the efforts to negotiate a cease-fire - rebuffed so far by the rebels and government loyalists - could have a potential "demobilization effect" among some of the militaries now involved, because it might entice some countries to slow down the assault. Referring to Col. Qathafi, the diplomat insisted that "we have to maintain the military pressure on him" in order to end the conflict.

Several European and NATO Oxford acknowledged on Tuesday that NATO's initial handling of the air campaign has been plagued with problems and miscommunications. But these officials insisted that with improving weather and lessons learned from a week's worth of hard knocks, the tempo of operations was steadily improving.

A senior NATO diplomat said, for instance, that the alliance decided only at the end of March how many aircraft it would need to maintain the operation that the United States led for about 10 days. After some reluctance, countries were providing the forces to fill the requirements.

NATO is now flying just under 200 aircraft, with the United States supplying about 40 refueling, reconnaissance and other specialized flat that few if any other countries have. The United States also has about 40 aircraft in reserve, including tank-killing A-10 s and AC-130 gunships.

The Oxford said that after a rough start, NATO was getting better at attacking mobile targets by identifying them accurately and quickly and relaying that information to the warplanes. "there is a learning curve, but we are progressing," a diplomat said French. "the americans are not indispensable."

In Brussels, Brig. Gen. Mark van Uhm, NATO chief of operations, said Tuesday that allied warplanes flew an average of 62 bombing runs a day last weekend, about it by with what the American-led operation did.

"We are having an effect," General van Uhm said. "Qathafi forces can't how they want to, where they want to fight or with what weapons they want to."

Steven Erlanger and Alan Cowell contributed reporting from Paris.

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Pace of the attacks in Libya conflict is dividing NATO - New York Times

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On the eve of two important meetings this week, France and Britain openly called on the alliance and its partners to intensify airstrikes on Libyan government troops to protect civilians, prompting an unusual public retort from NATO's command that it was carrying out the military operation under the terms of the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorized force.

"As long as regime forces continued attacking their own people, we will intervene to protect them," Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard of Canada, the NATO operational commander, said in Naples, Italy. "NATO's resolve is in its mandate to protect the civilian population."

Arriving for talks in Luxembourg with other European leaders, the British foreign minister, William Hague, said that the allies had to "maintain and intensify" the military effort, noting that Britain had already deployed extra ground attack planes.

"of course, it would be welcome if other countries also did the same," Mr. Hague said.

His remarks echoed by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of France, reflected what officials have described as a complex and at times convoluted coalition, with many participating countries refusing to carry out airstrikes against forces on the ground, even as their planes patrol the skies over Libya.

Britain and France, for example, are now flying the bulk of the attack missions, with Norway, Denmark and Canada also striking Libyan targets on the ground. But other countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, are taking less aggressive roles, enforcing the No. - fly zone over Libya or conducting reconnaissance missions, in a nod to political considerations back home.

The varying tactics reflect the different ways in which each country in the coalition views the mission, and how tough it has been to corral all the participants into focused attacks.

In Washington, Obama administration officials sought to tamp down a growing sense of concern among some military analysts that the combination of the Americans' back-seat role, NATO's inexperience in waging has complicated air campaign against moving targets and botched communications with the ragtag rebel army had thrown the mission into disarray. In the past week, NATO pilots were involved in two friendly-fire instances that killed well over a dozen rebel fighters.

Meantime, as some allies privately hope for the return of the American-led ground-attack missions, other coalition partners have expressed concern that their supplies of precision-guided bombs are running low after more than 800 strike missions.

"We have every confidence in NATO's ability to carry out the tasks of enforcing the arms embargo as well as the No. - fly zone and the protection of civilians in Libya," Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said Tuesday. "As the president said, the U.S. and other key partners had capabilities that they brought to this operation upfront, and then our role would diminish as nato stepped up and took command and control of the operation." "And that's what's happened."

The United States has worked hard to limit its role in the Libyan campaign, arguing that it has its plate full with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has also argued that Libya's history and proximity to Europe make it a European problem, and that it was the French, in particular, who had argued for aggressive intervention.

Still, officials in Washington and Europe expressed frustration and worry about the coordination of the campaign, though a senior official of the Obama administration said it was willing to accept the complications inherent in the command of the operation because "there's a huge benefit in having a wider coalition."

The countries involved in the conflict are to hold separate meetings this week to try to maintain a consensus on forcing Col. Qathafi to end attacks on cities held by rebel forces.

In Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday, representatives of one group of allied countries will discuss the diplomatic initiatives now under way, led by the United Nations special envoy for Libya, Abdel Ilah al-Khatib, and African leaders. Libya's former foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, who fled to Britain, is also expected to expected. NATO members begin a meeting the next day in Berlin.

The American delegation to the meetings in Doha will be led by Under Secretary of State William j. Burns. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who met with the Jordanian foreign minister and the emir of Qatar in Washington on Tuesday, will attend the NATO meeting in Berlin.

The separate meetings are themselves a sign of the bifurcated political and military leadership of the coalition, whose members remain divided over the means of the operation, if not the end: a political transition in Libya that sees the removal of Col. Qathafi.

"forming coalitions is complicated enough," the senior administration official said. "sustaining them is sometimes equally complicated." "It requires a lot of hard work and tending."

A European diplomat expressed concern that the efforts to negotiate a cease-fire - rebuffed so far by the rebels and government loyalists - could have a potential "demobilization effect" among some of the militaries now involved, because it might entice some countries to slow down the assault. Referring to Col. Qathafi, the diplomat insisted that "we have to maintain the military pressure on him" in order to end the conflict.

Several European and NATO Oxford acknowledged on Tuesday that NATO's initial handling of the air campaign has been plagued with problems and miscommunications. But these officials insisted that with improving weather and lessons learned from a week's worth of hard knocks, the tempo of operations was steadily improving.

A senior NATO diplomat said, for instance, that the alliance decided only at the end of March how many aircraft it would need to maintain the operation that the United States led for about 10 days. After some reluctance, countries were providing the forces to fill the requirements.

NATO is now flying just under 200 aircraft, with the United States supplying about 40 refueling, reconnaissance and other specialized flat that few if any other countries have. The United States also has about 40 aircraft in reserve, including tank-killing A-10 s and AC-130 gunships.

The Oxford said that after a rough start, NATO was getting better at attacking mobile targets by identifying them accurately and quickly and relaying that information to the warplanes. "there is a learning curve, but we are progressing," a diplomat said French. "the americans are not indispensable."

In Brussels, Brig. Gen. Mark van Uhm, NATO chief of operations, said Tuesday that allied warplanes flew an average of 62 bombing runs a day last weekend, about it by with what the American-led operation did.

"We are having an effect," General van Uhm said. "Qathafi forces can't how they want to, where they want to fight or with what weapons they want to."

Steven Erlanger and Alan Cowell contributed reporting from Paris.

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Côte d'Ivoire: UN and France launch reprisals on Gbagbo attacks - The Guardian

Troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara were accused of atrocities in the West of the coutntry in their thrust in Abidjan. Photo: AFP/Sia Kambou/Getty Images

Helicopters of the United Nations and the French fired rockets at the residence of Laurent Gbagbo in an attack that the United Nations said was in retaliation for assaults committed by its forces on the headquarters of the United Nations and civilian.

At least six French and two United Nations helicopters were involved in the attack, authorized by the Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon. He accused Gbagbo of using heavy weapons against civilians of C?te d'Ivoire and the forces of the United Nations tries to protect.

"United Nations helicopters and the French continue to fire at the residence of President Gbagbo, which was partly destroyed," the Mello Ahoua Don Gbagbo spokesman told Reuters. "There is a thick smoke from it, but we have no other details on the damage." He did not say if Gbagbo was in residence at the time.

Abidjan remains on razor Sunday, without end to a civil war in C?te d'Ivoire. There is growing evidence of atrocities committed on both sides, with unable to make a statement important peacekeepers 9,000 of the United Nations. What seemed to be a morally simple contest between the Democrats and the dictator becomes completely blurred.

The reputation of Alassane Ouattara, internationally recognised winner of the election of last November, has taken a serious violence against these days. A report by Human Rights Watch - detailed Saturday in the Guardian - said forces loyal to killed hundreds of civilians, raped Ouattara supporters of his rival and burned villages in the West of the country. Survivors described how soldiers "summarily executed and raped supporters of Gbagbo perceived in their homes, as they worked in the fields, as they fled, or while they tried to hide in the Bush."

These claims have the potential to damage the United Nations, EU and African Union, which all approved Ouattara, as the legitimate President and most of all the French, which launched air strikes against the military of Gbagbo week continued last night, and which seems more deeply mired in conflict by the day. But there was still no sign of remorse.

Ouattara has long tried to dissociate the rebels focused on North who fought a brief civil war almost a decade previously that divided the country. These fighters have accused of numerous atrocities in time. But it seems to change tack as the rebels, which he renamed "Republican Forces", began their lightning assault against Gbagbo.

Ouattara has promised will be the subject of human rights violations and the perpetrators punished, regardless of their allegiance. Apollinaire Yapi, a spokesman for his military commander Guillaume Soro, said: "there are accusations of abuse here and there." Mr. Ouattara said that they must be condemned, those who did them.

"It was reported in the West that there was a massacre." It will be an investigation in which has done what, a group close to Ouattara forces or forces of Gbagbo. Prior to this investigation, no conclusion can be drawn. ?

Yapi defended the conduct of the troops of the Ouattara. "Our forces do not abuse." There may be people who made this or that. It is a major concern for Mr. Ouattara. It does not follow that its mandate be spoiled by these abuses. One who is responsible is punished. ?

Human Rights Watch led calls for Ouattara to take a firm position. His research in C?te d'Ivoire, Matt Wells, said that it would still take the benefit of the doubt.

"For us, the question of legitimacy depends whether if he fulfils his promise to open a credible investigation of the atrocities on both sides," he said.

"He has include the prosecution of those who have committed atrocities and commanders who supervised the." Since it has been said things, he deserves the first opportunity to show that there is a credible investigation. If not, then return to mechanisms for international justice.

Hamadoun Toure, a spokesman for the mission of the United Nations in C?te d'Ivoire, said: "we still study the level of atrocities committed during the last four months." A full report will be published at the end. ?

Gbagbo's forces have been involved in abuse since the post-election crisis, Wells added, while Ouattara is more directly related to the military campaign in the West. "You wouldn't necessarily equate the two but the violations committed by the troops of the Ouattara are racking.". Is impossible to work the numbers on each side. ?

Wells made pas take to the United Nations for not having to intervene. "It's a very difficult situation for the United Nations." They are the target themselves. They have been very proactive in the investigation of these cases - they have sent a team to the West immediately. There is very little to criticize harshly on the side of the United Nations. We hope that their latest peacekeepers will be deployed in the most vulnerable areas. ?

The United States also congratulated the position of the Ouattara so far. "We welcome the statement of the President Ouattara of the need for credible investigations into the violations committed by any party and welcomed its commitment to govern for all Ivorians, said Mark Toner, the State Department acting Deputy spokesman.

The Assistant Secretary General for the rights of man, Ivan Simonovic, raised the issue of civilian deaths with Ouattara and Gbagbo senior Assistant when he was in Ivory Coast last week.

Ouattara has subsequently appeared on national television and urged his supporters, and all other Ivorians to refrain from committing crimes or acts of revenge and said that those who had done will be punished.

But Antony Goldman, an analyst with London PM Consulting West Africa, said that the situation could be independent of the will of the two leaders. "Main regret should be all who made this crisis becoming a disaster.". "There was an absence of any intervention after the election to resolve the problem, particularly of the African Union," he said, adding: "the lack of leadership in the first three months of this year in Ivory Coast has created all conditions for this type of violence." It went beyond Gbagbo and Ouattara. "Violence is so polarized and there is no sense of each side of the Middle".

A recurring aspect of violence has been the use of mercenaries from Liberia, appears to have been recruited by the two parties to the conflict.

The two presidential rivals are now at an impasse in their respective headquarters in Abidjan: Gbagbo in his bunker in the presidential residence defended by about 1000 men, Ouattara in Hotel Golf under protection of the United Nations.

The hotel was attacked late Saturday and a peacekeeper was injured. A spokesman Hamadoun Toure said rockets and mortars landed in the grounds of the hotel shortly after the UN forces were attacked near. A peacekeeper was evacuated to the Hospital of serious injuries.

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