5 killed in Syria; France opposes unilateral action
By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 11/18/2011 13:28
Tougher sanctions needed, says Juppe; Turkish FM calls for pressure on Damascus to stop bloodshed.
Juppe and Davutoglu Photo: Reuters
Syrian security forces shot dead at least five anti-government protesters Friday as French
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he opposed any unilateral
intervention in Syria and any such move should be mandated by the United
Nations.
The security forces also wounded dozens when they fired live ammunition to
disperse protests against President Bashar Assad after Friday prayers,
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Among those killed
was a 14 year-old protester in the southern city of Deraa. The rest of
the deaths occurred in the Damascus suburb of Erbin, the central city of
Homs and the countryside of the city of Hama to the north, said the
Observatory.
RELATED:
Arab League gives Syria 3 days to stop bloodshed
Meanwhile,
Juppe said that tougher sanctions are needed and stated that Syria and
France are ready to work together with the Syrian
opposition.
The
French foreign minister,
who was speaking at a news conference in Ankara alongside Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, added that he doubted whether Syria
would respond positively to an Arab League peace plan proposal.
Davutoglu said pressure on Syria needed to be escalated to stop the bloodshed.
France,
Britain and Germany planed to ask the UN General Assembly's human rights
committee to approve a resolution condemning the violence in Syria,
before putting the non-binding measure to a vote in an Assembly plenary
session.
Syrians took to the streets on Friday to call for the international community to expel its Syrian ambassadors.
The
rally, called "Expel Ambassadors Day," is meant to further isolate
Damascus in the international community following its expulsion from the
Arab League.
"Ambassadors
for a mafia regime - they are not ambassadors. They do work which does
not involve diplomatic work. They start with security work: spying
on Syrians abroad. They investigate and extort in order to practice
their business trade, legitimate and illegitimate." the Syrian
Revolution 2011, a main organizing group of the uprising, said on their
Facebook page.
Assassinations and arrests have been rampant in Syria as the military cracks down on protesters calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to go.
Prof.
Abul Khair Muhammad Farhan was assassinated Thursday evening by Syrian
security forces, witnesses told Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Witnesses
said that Farhan was shot to death by security elements who fired from a
"government vehicle," Dubai-based Al Arabiya reported.
Farhan,
who was a professor at the Homs Law College, was a leading figure in the
opposition against Assad, according to Al
Arabiya.
Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council,
called for a calming of sectarian tensions between Alawites and majority
Sunni Muslims, especially in the restive city of Homs.
"We have
seen in the last few weeks kidnappings, assassination and score-settling
among members of the same people, even from within the sons of the
revolution, which poses a dangerous threat to the gains of the
revolution and offers a big service to the regime," he said in a
statement.