Arab League chief urges end to Syria crackdown

Observers resume activities for first time in week; France, Britain push UNSC on Assad condemnation.

By REUTERS
Syria protest_311 (photo credit: Reuters)
Syria protest_311
(photo credit: Reuters)
CAIRO - Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby urged Damascus on Thursday to immediately end military operations against "defenseless civilians" saying the continued violence was claiming innocent victims.
Arab League observers in Syria, depleted by a pullout of their Gulf Arab colleagues, resumed work on Thursday for the first time in a week during which a bloody struggle between President Bashar Assad and his opponents has raged on.
Security forces deployed across the Damascus suburb of Douma on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Douma, a protest hotbed that has recently seen a rise in rebel activity, was rocked by loud explosions overnight, according to activists living there.
In an unusually strong statement, Elaraby said he was "concerned over the continued killing and violence in Syria that has claimed more innocent victims."
"(Elaraby) called for an immediate end to all forms of violence and on the Syrian government to... stop military and security escalation against defenseless civilians," the statement issued by his office said.
Elaraby also praised the monitors for working "professionally and seriously" despite what described as very difficult circumstances.
The Arab League, while extending its monitoring mission for another month, called has called for Assad to step down as part of a transition plan for which it is seeking UN support.
The British-based Observatory said army operations under way in parts of the countryside around the capital had led to fighting on Wednesday night but said there were no signs of clashes in Douma on Thursday since security forces deployed.
France and Britain have joined efforts at the United Nations to end Assad's 11-year rule, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country remained opposed to sanctions on Syria and reiterated its opposition to military intervention.
"The UN Security Council must support the Arab League's courageous decisions which are trying to end the repression and violence in Syria and find a solution to the political crisis," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.
The Security Council could vote as early as next week on a Western-Arab draft resolution, council diplomats said.
A group of Arab monitors planned to visit the troubled Damascus suburb of Irbin, one of them said. It would be their first outing since Friday. The mission had put its activities on hold until Arab foreign ministers met to decide its future.
Gulf Arab states have since withdrawn their 55 observers from the 165-strong team, saying they were sure "the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue". Arab League officials said they would be replaced and work would go on.
An Algerian observer in the team heading to Irbin said he was nervous because some opposition groups had said they would not cooperate with the mission. "We don't know what to expect," he told Reuters, declining to be named.
Another monitor said he was confused about the purpose of prolonging the mission for another four weeks. "The report has been written and the (Arab League) decisions have been taken, so another month to do what? We are not sure," he said.
Senior Red Crescent official shot and killed
Syrian opposition groups have accused the observer mission, which deployed on Dec. 26, of giving Assad diplomatic cover to pursue a crackdown on protesters and rebels in which more than 5,000 people have been killed since March, by a UN tally.
The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the northern town of Idlib was shot dead on Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said, in an attack which Damascus blamed on "terrorists".
State news agency SANA also said a priest was killed by "terrorists" while helping a wounded person in the city of Hama.
The opposition Local Coordinating Committees activist group said a total of 27 people had been killed, including six fighters in the rebel Free Syrian Army.

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The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 13 civilians and six army deserters.
The state news agency SANA said 14 members of the security forces were buried on Wednesday, describing them as martyrs killed by "armed terrorist groups" across the country. It also said five security men had been killed when a police station was attacked in the town of Apamea in the central province of Hama.