French Envoy Targeted with Stones in Damascus, 13 Civilians Killed in Homs
France's envoy to Damascus was attacked on Saturday by a crowd throwing stones and eggs at him after he met with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignace IV in the Syrian capital, he said.
Eric Chevallier had met with Ignace in the Christian quarter of Damascus's old city when young people and women began chanting slogans in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and threw eggs and stones at the French delegation when the ambassador was going to his car.
"The Shabiha (a pro-regime militia), some of whom had metal bars in their hands, and women threw eggs and stones in my direction and in the direction of my team, and looked threateningly at us while we were returning to our two cars," Chevallier told Agence France Presse.
On Thursday, the French envoy visited four schools in Damascus and its surrounding suburbs to express his "deep concern" following reports that protests at those schools were repressed.
On Monday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe accused the Syrian regime of "crimes against humanity" and criticized the U.N. Security Council for failing to take a strong stand on the unrest.
On September 13, Chevallier and his U.S. counterpart, Robert Ford, travelled to the Damascus district of Daraya to attend a condolence ceremony for slain Syrian activist Ghiyath Matar, who reportedly died under torture.
Damascus does not accept that popular opposition to the authorities exists, instead blaming "armed gangs" and "terrorists" for trying to sow chaos.
On the other hand, Syrian security forces killed at least 13 civilians on Saturday, nearly all in the central region of Homs, a human rights group said.
"Twelve civilians were killed in Qusseir during search operations for people wanted by the army and security forces in this locality," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP in Nicosia.
Security forces shot and killed another person in the nearby city of Hama, it added.
In addition, the bodies of two people who had gone missing in recent days were handed over to their families by the Syrian authorities, while another died of wounds suffered on Friday.
Nine people were killed by security forces during anti-regime protests in the Homs area on Friday, the Britain-based Observatory reported.
The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva has said the death toll from the crackdown on dissent since March 15 has risen to more than 2,700.
Source: Agence France Presse
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