More than 70 killed in Syria in one day

More than 70 killed in Syria in one day




Undated amateur video image posted online and aired on Syrian state TV shows a Syrian soldier and a policeman apparently dead from gunshot wounds in Syria. (AP)


By AGENCIES

Published: Nov 15, 2011 11:50 Updated: Nov 15, 2011 15:01

BEIRUT: Syrian activists say a wave of violence has killed more than 70 people in southern Syria in one day, most of them in clashes between army deserters and troops loyal to President Bashar Assad.


The activists say many of those killed on Monday are Syrian soldiers who came under attack by army defectors in the southern province of Daraa, which borders neighboring Jordan and was the region where major protests first erupted against Assad in March.

The city morgue in the restive city of Homs has received 19 corpses, all of them with bullet wounds.

The violence came as Syria faces growing international isolation following the Arab League’s decision to suspend its membership in response to Assad’s crackdown on eight months of protests calling for his overthrow.

The Assad regime has been trying to crush an uprising for the past eight months, but the movement has not abated. The UN estimates the regime’s military crackdown on dissent has killed 3,500 people so far.

Hundreds of people have been killed so far this month, making it one of the bloodiest periods of the Syrian protests, inspired by uprisings which have overthrown leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The latest death toll comes from the Local Coordination Committees, an activist coalition, morgue figures and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Video footage broadcast by Al Jazeera television showed what appeared to be a tank engulfed in flames, alongside other burning vehicles.

At least 12 of the attackers were also killed, the Observatory said, while another 23 people were killed in “gunfire from security and military checkpoints” in southern villages.

Syria has barred most foreign media from the country, making it difficult to verify conflicting accounts from authorities and activists. Syria’s state news agency SANA made no mention of clashes in the south on Monday.

Authorities blame armed groups for the violence, saying at least 1,100 soldiers and police have been killed since the uprising broke out in March.

Alongside street protests, which rights groups say have been mainly peaceful, an increasingly forceful armed insurgency has targeted Assad’s military and security forces.



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