At Least 26 Dead as Syrian Ships, Tanks Blast Latakia
At least 26 people were killed as the Syrian military opened fire on the Mediterranean port city of Latakia on Sunday, with warships and tanks joining the assault, activists said.
But the state-run news agency SANA denied that the navy had attacked Latakia, quoting its correspondent in there as saying security forces were battling gunmen.
Activists said four other people were killed elsewhere in the country in bloodshed that came a day after world leaders demanded an immediate end to the ruthless crushing of dissent in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement that at least 23 people were killed and dozens more wounded in the city, several critically.
But the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria (NOHRS) put the death toll in Latakia at 26, providing a list of names of those killed, and said two other people died in Homs, one in Hama and one in Idlib.
The Syrian Observatory said the vessels opened up with heavy machine-guns and the NOHRS confirmed the report, calling the attack "unprecedented."
But the official SANA news agency, quoting its Latakia correspondent, denied that naval vessels had opened fire on the city.
The agency said its correspondent "denied reports carried by some media that said Ramel (district) was shelled from the sea."
"Law enforcement members are pursuing armed men who are using machine guns, grenades and bombs in Ramel from rooftops and from behind barricades," SANA said.
The head of medical services in Latakia was quoted as saying that two members of the security forces were killed and 41 others wounded in the city "while chasing armed men."
In May, during an army operation in Banias, another port, navy ships patrolled offshore but did not open fire.
A spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA, Chris Gunness, said reports from the Ramel camp spoke of "fire from tanks which have encircled the area as well as fire from ships at sea."
He called on the Syrian authorities "to order their troops to exercise maximum restraint," and demanded "access for humanitarian workers to tend to the injured and dying."
"Poor communications make it impossible to confirm numbers of those killed and injured," Gunness said in a statement.
On Saturday, the military killed at least two people and wounded 15 others in the Ramel area of southern Latakia, a nerve center of anti-regime protests, according to the group.
"Large numbers of residents, especially women and children" have fled Ramel, the scene of mass protests calling for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, it said.
The Syrian Observatory said landline telephones and Internet connections with the eastern Mediterranean port city were cut.
Around the capital, "security forces entered Saqba and Hamriya in great numbers and launched a campaign of arrests," according to the Britain-based group.
It said troops arrived in "15 military trucks, eight troop carriers and four jeeps," launching the assault at around 2:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday). "Gunfire was heard in both suburbs," and communications severed during the operation.
Syria's human rights groups, in a joint statement, on Sunday urged the authorities to release the head of the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights, Abdul Karim Rihawi, who was arrested on Thursday in Damascus.
His detention "represents a violation of the international commitments undertaken by Syria," they said.
"Security forces are continuing mass arrests, in violation of the law, human rights and democratic freedoms, denying the rights of opposition figures and peaceful demonstrators," the groups said.
In a telephone conversation on Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama and Saudi King Abdullah expressed their "shared, deep concerns about the Syrian government's use of violence against its citizens," the White House said in a statement.
"They agreed that the Syrian regime's brutal campaign of violence against the Syrian people must end immediately."
In a separate phone call, Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron also called for an "immediate" end to the bloodshed which has raged since protests broke out in mid-March.
A spokesman for Downing Street said the two leaders "expressed horror at the brutal reaction of the Syrian regime to legitimate protests, particularly during Ramadan," the holy month in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.
The call came after Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim regional heavyweight which had remained silent on the five-month revolt, added its voice to a chorus of criticism and recalled its ambassador from Damascus.
The violence has cost more than 2,150 lives, including around 400 members of the security forces, according to rights activists. Syrian authorities have blamed the bloodshed on armed gangs and Islamist militants.
Washington has steadily ratcheted up the pressure on Damascus, imposing new sanctions and saying Assad has lost all legitimacy, but has so far stopped short of openly calling for him to step down.
Syrian troops backed by tanks have struggled to crush the revolt since pro-democracy protests turned into a full-scale uprising, despite repeated calls for restraint from world leaders.
The U.N. Security Council is due to hold a special meeting on Thursday to discuss human rights and the humanitarian emergency in Syria.
Source: Agence France Presse
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