The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Syrian tanks shell villages, Assad offers dialogue
- Police search Kabul hotel for more victims after Taliban attack
- At least 10 killed in attack on landmark hotel in Afghan capital
| Syrian tanks shell villages, Assad offers dialogue Posted: 28 Jun 2011 08:48 PM PDT AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian tanks shelled a hill region in the northwestern province of Idlib, residents and activists said, in a military assault to suppress protests in rural areas that have already driven thousands of refugees to Turkey.
The overnight assault was launched a day after the authorities announced they would invite opponents to talks on July 10 to set a framework for a dialogue promised by President Bashar al-Assad, who has faced criticism from Western governments over the military campaign to crush a three-month uprising against his rule. Opposition leaders have dismissed the offer, saying it is not credible while mass killings and arrests continue. "I can hear heavy explosions 20 km to the north, around the villages of Rama and Orum al-Joz. My relatives there say the shelling is random," said a resident of Kin Safra village in Jabal al-Zawya region, west of the highway linking the cities of Hama and Aleppo. Another resident said 30 tanks were transported om Monday from the village of Bdama on the Turkish border, where troops broke into houses and burnt crops, to Jabal al-Zawya. Rights campaigners say troops, security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad have killed over 1,300 civilians since the uprising for political freedom erupted in the southern Hauran Plain in March, including over 150 people killed in a scorched earth campaign against towns and villages in Idlib. They say scores of troops and police were also killed for refusing to fire on civilians. Syrian authorities say more than 250 soldiers and police died in clashes with "armed terrorist groups", whom they also blame for most civilian deaths. Assad adviser Bouthaina Shaaban told Sky News: "We hope that by conducting and hastening the national dialogue, we will be able to isolate any militant or violent group and work together with the international community to overcome that big problem." More than 10,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey since the military assaults on Idlib began in areas nearer to the border with Turkey thee weeks ago. Opposition figure Ammar al-Qarabi, head of the Syrian National Organisation for Human Rights, said the latest shelling appeared in preparation for storming Jabal al-Zawya, a region of several villages 35 km south of Turkey that has been witnessing spreading protests against Assad's 11-year rule. "Jabal al-Zawya was one of the first regions in Syria where people took to street demanding the downfall of the regime. The military attacks have now reached them and they will likely result in more killings and in more refugees to Turkey," Qarabi, who is from Idlib, told Reuters by phone from Cairo. Turkey shares an 840 km border with Syria, a mostly Sunni country ruled by a tigh knit hierarchy belonging the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Islam. Turkey and has become increasingly critical of Assad after backing him in his moves to improve ties with the West and seek a peace deal with Israel. Assad had opened the Syrian market to Turkish goods, but Turkish container traffic to Syria fell sharply over the last month, merchants say. Sawasiah, another Syrian rights organisation headed by lawyer Mohannad al-Hassani, said a security campaign that has resulted in the arrest of more than 12,000 people across Syria since the uprising erupted in March, has intensified in the last few days. A statement by Sawasiah said security forces arrested on Tuesday Farhad Khader Ayou, an official in the Kurdish Mustaqbal party, in the eastern province of Hasaka on Tuesday. The statement said 17 people in the province of Raqqa to the west were arrested in the last 48 hours, adding to hundreds of people arbitrarily arrested across the country this week. Assad's repression of the protests has triggered Western condemnation and a gradual escalation of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Assad and other Syrian officials. France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe will travel to Russia later this week where he will meet his Russian counterpart and discuss the Syrian impasse in the hope of convincing Moscow to change its stance on a resolution condemning Syria at the United Nations. French foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Paris was extremely concerned with the ongoing violence in Syria saying that "reforms and repression were not compatible." Valero, however, said that Syrian authorities took a positive step by allowing a meeting in Damascus on Monday of intellectuals that included several opposition figures. "Holding such a meeting is positive and we hope it will be the departure point for a real national political dialogue that will facilitate finding a way out of the crisis," he said. (Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Editing by Angus MacSwan) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Police search Kabul hotel for more victims after Taliban attack Posted: 28 Jun 2011 08:48 PM PDT KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan police sifted through one of Kabul's landmark hotels room by room on Wednesday for any more casualties or security threats after an overnight assault by at least six Taliban suicide bombers killed 10 Afghan civilians.
The attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, stormed the heavily guarded Intercontinental hotel, frequented by Westerners and VIPs, before NATO helicopters killed the remaining insurgents in a final rooftop battle that ended a raid lasting more than five hours. After several explosions, attackers entered the hotel late on Tuesday and made their way to the ballroom, a hotel receptionist said. Some carried tape recorders playing Taliban war songs and shot at anyone they saw. Guests jumped from second and third floors to escape, the receptionist told Reuters, asking not to be identified. "The police are still searching room by room to see if there are any casualties or any threats," Kabul police chief Ayoub Salangi told reporters. There have been insurgent attacks at a hotel, guesthouse and a supermarket in Kabul over the past year, although the capital has been relatively quiet compared with the rest of the country. The timing of the attack, which began late on Tuesday, carried hallmarks of other raids meant to show the Taliban still retain the ability to strike at will despite gains made by NATO-led troops over the past 18 months. Some guests included provincial governors attending a conference due to begin later on Wednesday over the transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans, two Afghan officials said. The raid also came a week after U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans for an initial withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, with another 23,000 to leave by the end of 2012, sparking concerns the Afghan security forces were not ready to take over. LATE-NIGHT ATTACK In the early hours of Wednesday, some foreign hotel guests were driven away in diplomatic vehicles while others waited on a street outside the hotel as the sun rose over Kabul. Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than five hours, with bursts of gunfire heard during the late-night attack. Two insurgents were shot dead by police while four others blew themselves up. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel. Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted. The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets. One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then three more at least an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky over the hotel. Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel. Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack. The hotel, built on a hillside in western Kabul with heavy fortifications all around it, is often used for conferences and by Westerners visiting the city. Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May. The last big attack on a major Kabul hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taliban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style raid on the nearby Serena hotel. The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of a gradual transition process that will end with all foreign troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The two-day conference to discuss the transition process was due to begin in a government building in the centre of the city on Wednesday. Officials said the conference would go on despite the attack. Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 was already at its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Omar Sobhani and Ahmad Masood; Editing by Paul Tait and Sanjeev Miglani) Copyright © 2008 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| At least 10 killed in attack on landmark hotel in Afghan capital Posted: 28 Jun 2011 07:47 PM PDT KABUL (Reuters) - At least 10 Afghan civilians were killed when suicide bombers and heavily armed Taliban insurgents attacked a hotel frequented by Westerners in the Afghan capital late on Tuesday, Afghan officials said.
Helicopters from the NATO-led force killed the last three insurgents in a final rooftop battle, a coalition spokesman said. Smoke rose from the roof of the Intercontinental hotel as the sun rose over Kabul after a battle lasting several hours. "At least 10 civilians, including hotel staff, were killed when six suicide bombers attacked the Intercontinental," Mohammad Zahir, the head of the Kabul police crime unit, told Reuters. Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said at least six Afghans had been killed. The attack came the night before the start of a conference about the gradual transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans. The hotel was not one of the venues to be used by the conference or its delegates, an Afghan government official said. It was also a week after U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans for the initial withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, with another 23,000 to leave by the end of 2012. Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than two hours, with bursts of gunfire heard during the late-night attack on the Intercontinental, one of two main hotels used by foreigners and Afghan government officials in Kabul. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said there had been gunfire coming from inside the hotel. "Two ISAF helicopters have ... engaged three individuals on the roof," coalition spokesman Major Tim James said. "The indications are that the three individuals on the roof have been killed." One Reuters witness said smoke could be seen rising from the hotel, although no fires were visible. Afghan security forces surrounded the hotel and firefighters arrived after the last of the insurgents were killed. Sediqqi said six or seven insurgents had been involved in the attack, one of the worst in the Afghan capital in months. "All have been killed," he said. Zahir also said three police officers had been wounded as they cleared the hotel on the city's western outskirts. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel. Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted. The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets. FLARES, TRACER ROUNDS One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then three more at least an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky over the hotel. Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel. Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack. The hotel, built on a hillside in western Kabul with heavy fortifications all around it, is often used for conferences and by Westerners visiting the city. Police threw up roadblocks immediately after the blast, stopping people from approaching the area. Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May, although Kabul has been relatively quiet. The last major attack on a major Kabul hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taliban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style raid on the nearby Serena hotel. The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of a gradual transition process that will end with all foreign troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The two-day conference to discuss the transition process was due to begin in a government building in the centre of the city on Wednesday. Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 was already at its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. (Additional reporting by Omar Sobhani, Alistair Scrutton and Akram Walizada; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Sugita Katyal) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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