On Christmas Day, Ghalioun Urges World to Stop 'Barbaric Massacre'

The Arab League must bring the U.N. into the effort to stop Syria's bloody crackdown on protesters, the top opposition leader said Sunday, as security forces pressed ahead with raids and arrests around the country.

Burhan Ghalioun, the Paris-based leader of the Syrian National Council, made the plea as Arab League officials were setting up observer teams, part of their plan to end nine months of turmoil that has killed more than 5,000 people, according to the U.N.

Opposition groups believe the Arab League is not strong enough to resolve the crisis, which is escalating beyond mass demonstrations into armed clashes — and a double suicide bombing that shook Damascus on Friday.

In a televised speech marking Christmas, Ghalioun said, "I call upon the Arab League to ask the Security Council to adopt its plan in order to increase possibilities of its success and avoid giving the regime an opportunity not to carry out its obligations."

He said the opposition council "holds the international community to its responsibilities and asks them to use all available means to put an end to the tragedies experienced by the Syrian people."

"The barbaric massacre must stop now," Ghalioun said, slamming the Assad regime as "fascist."

The opposition chief stressed that the SNC had welcomed the Arab initiative, but he noted that the regime was “trying to mislead the League and its monitors.”

The Arab League has begun sending observers into Syria to monitor compliance with its plan to end to the crackdown on political opponents. The 22-member bloc has warned that it could turn to the U.N. Security Council to help stop the violence that began nine months ago.

The Arab League plan requires the government to remove its security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. Syria agreed to the plan but has stalled implementation.

Mohamed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, head of the Arab League observer team, traveled to Damascus late Saturday after meeting with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi to discuss arrangements of the mission. More observers are expected to arrive Monday.

Also on Sunday, the SNC appealed for the Arab League to immediately send observers to the besieged city of Homs and other hotspots, as activists said security forces killed eight civilians across the country.

The call came a day before a first group of Arab League observers is set to arrive in Syria.

"Since early this morning, the (Homs) neighborhood of Baba Amro has been under a tight siege and the threat of military invasion by an estimated 4,000 soldiers," the SNC said in a statement received by Agence France Presse.

"This is in addition to the nonstop bombing of Homs that has been going on for days," said the council.

The central city of Homs has been a focal point of the Assad government's crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations, as well as the site of fierce clashes between the army and mutinous soldiers.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that security forces on Sunday pounded Baba Amro with mortar fire, wounding eight people.

"The neighborhood is still under heavy machinegun fire," the Britain-based watchdog said in a statement received by AFP, noting that two people were killed in different parts of the city.

Security forces also raided the town of al-Jerdi in eastern Deir al-Zour province, wounding four people and arresting dozens more, it said.

Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed Sunday four civilians in Homs, three in Deir al-Zour and another person in the southern Daraa province.

A nine-member advance team of Arab monitors arrived in Syria on Thursday to pave the way for the observer mission to oversee the deal to end the crackdown.

"The Syrian National Council demands that the Arab League observers go to Homs immediately, specifically to the besieged neighborhoods, to fulfill their stated mission," it said in the statement.

"In addition, we demand that the observers go to all the hotspots in Syria, or withdraw and conclude their mission if it is not possible for them to do so.

"We hold the Arab League and the international community accountable for the massacres and bloodshed committed by the regime in Syria," said the opposition group.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said he expects the Arab League observers to vindicate his government's contention the violence in the country is the work of "armed terrorists."

Western governments and rights watchdogs blame the Assad regime for the bloodshed.

Opposition leaders charge that Syria agreed to the mission after weeks of prevarication in a "ploy" to head off a League threat to go to the U.N. Security Council over the crackdown.

Muallem met the advance team of Arab League officials on Saturday, in talks the ministry's spokesman called "positive".

Arab League Assistant Secretary General Samir Seif al-Yazal, head of the nine-member advance team, said the first group of observers, more than 50 experts, would leave for Damascus on Monday.

They will eventually number between 150 and 200.

The opposition SNC and human rights activists have charged that the Syrian government was behind twin suicide bomb attacks on Friday that killed 44 people in Damascus.

Assad's regime has blamed the attacks on "terrorist organizations," including al-Qaida, although it has yet to release details on how it reached such a conclusion.

The SNC said "the Syrian regime, alone, bears all the direct responsibility for the two terrorist explosions."

It said the government was trying to create the impression "that it faces danger coming from abroad and not a popular revolution demanding freedom and dignity."