Obama says Assad must go (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – The United States and European Union called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down on Thursday and Barack Obama accused him of "torturing and slaughtering" his people in what U.N. officials said may be crimes against humanity.

It was a dramatic sharpening of international rhetoric -- major states had urged Assad to reform rather than resign. But with no threat of Western military action like that against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, the five-month-old conflict between Assad and his opponents seems likely to grind on in the streets.

Putting faith in sanctions rather than force, President Obama ordered Syrian government assets in the United States frozen, banned U.S. citizens from operating or investing in Syria and prohibited U.S. imports of Syrian oil products.

Though U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Assad had assured him on Wednesday that military operations were over, activists said Syrian forces carried out further raids in Deir al-Zor and surrounded a mosque in Latakia on Thursday.

"The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way," Obama said. "His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people."

In a coordinated move, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Assad to step aside and said the EU was preparing to broaden sanctions against Syria.

United Nations human rights investigators said Assad's forces had carried out systematic attacks on civilians, often opening fire at close range and without warning, and committing violations that may amount to crimes against humanity.

A new U.N. report recounted complaints of indiscriminate shooting and of wounded people being put to death with knives or by being dumped in the refrigerated rooms of hospital morgues.

CRACKDOWN "CONTINUING"

In a telephone call with Assad on Wednesday U.N. Secretary General Ban joined a chorus of condemnation, expressing alarm at reports of widespread violations of human rights and excessive use of force by security forces against civilians.

But the Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union, an activists' group, said security forces fired machineguns near a mosque in Latakia which was surrounded by armored vehicles.

In the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, which was stormed by tanks 11 days ago, security forces backed by troops raided houses in al-Jubaila district, it said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Assad responded to protests with "empty promises and horrific violence": "For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for him to step aside and leave this transition to the Syrians themselves."

Nadim Shehadi of London's Chatham House think-tank said the shift in tone from Washington and Europe was significant, since it may give heart to Syrians who saw previous calls for Assad to reform as an indication of support for him, albeit ambiguous:

"The previous messages from the West to Bashar al-Assad were ambiguous," Shehadi said. "Now the West has hit at the very basis of the idea of his power, by telling him that we don't believe in you any more and you should leave.

"People who were standing on the sidelines, and reluctant to join the uprising, will now do so. This message will have much more of an impact than an air raid campaign or an invasion."

SANCTIONS IMPACT

It may take time, however, for the diplomatic broadside, backed by the new sanctions, to have an impact on the 45-year-old president who took power when his father President Hafez al-Assad died 11 years ago after three decades in office.

He has so far brushed off international pressure and survived years of U.S. and European isolation following the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, a killing many Western nations held Damascus responsible for.

Despite the escalating international rhetoric and Western sanctions, no country is proposing to take the kind of military action NATO forces launched in Libya to support rebels fighting Gaddafi. That action has helped rebels take much of the country.

However, Syria's economy, already hit by a collapse in tourism revenue, could be further damaged by Obama's announcement. U.S. sanctions will make it very difficult for banks to finance transactions involving Syrian oil exports.

It will make it also challenging for companies with a large U.S. presence, such as Shell, to continue producing crude in Syria -- although the impact on global oil markets from a potential shutdown of Syria's 380,000 barrels per day oil industry would be relatively small compared to that of Libya.

Assad says the protests are a foreign conspiracy to divide Syria and pledged last week his army would "not relent in pursuing terrorist groups."

Syria has expelled most independent media since the unrest began, making it difficult to verify reports from the country.

U.N. INVESTIGATION

The U.N. investigators said Syrian forces had fired on peaceful protesters throughout the country, often at short range and without warning, killing at least 1,900 civilians, including children. Their wounds were "consistent with an apparent shoot-to-kill policy," their report said.

Some were reported to have been finished off with knives.

"The mission found a pattern of human rights violations that constitutes widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population, which may amount to crimes against humanity," it said, specifically citing the Rome Statutes of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

There was a "clear pattern of snipers shooting at demonstrators," and in some cases targeting people trying to evacuate the wounded. In hospitals "there were several reports of security forces killing injured victims by putting them alive in refrigerators in hospital morgues."

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay will address the 15-nation U.N. Security Council in a closed-door session on Syria on Thursday, along with U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos.

"OHCHR (Pillay's office) have indicated that their Syria report will find evidence that Syria has committed grave violations of international human rights law in its actions dealing with protesters over the past five months," a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Pillay also will say an international investigation is needed and she was likely to suggest the ICC war crimes court in The Hague would be appropriate, the diplomat said.

The Security Council has referred only two cases to the ICC -- over Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region and, earlier this year, Gaddafi's crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.

Council diplomats say veto-holding powers Russia and China would be reluctant to vote for a referral of Syria to the ICC.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Deborah Charles in Washington, Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, Mohammed Abbas in London, Mariam Karouny in Beirut and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Jon Hemming and Alastair Macdonald)

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Assad says Syria won't stop fight against "terrorists" (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday his forces would continue to pursue "terrorist groups," after Turkey pressed him to end a military assault aimed at crushing protests against his rule.

Syria "will not relent in pursuing the terrorist groups in order to protect the stability of the country and the security of the citizens," state news agency SANA quoted Assad as telling Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"But (Syria) is also determined to continue reforms ... and is open to any help offered by friendly and brotherly states."

While the two men held talks in Damascus, Syrian forces killed at least 30 people and moved into a town near the Turkish border, an activist group said.

The National Organization for Human Rights said most of the fatalities occurred when troops backed by tanks and armored vehicles overran villages north of Hama, while four were killed in Binnish, 30 km (20 miles) from the border with Turkey.

Despite growing international condemnation, including a sudden wave of Arab criticism, Assad's forces also pursued an offensive in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, residents said.

Activists say at least 1,600 civilians have died since the uprising against Assad erupted in March, making it one of the bloodiest of the upheavals sweeping the Arab world.

Davutoglu held six hours of meetings with Syrian officials, including a two-hour session alone with Assad.

Neighbouring Turkey has grown increasingly critical of the violence but earned a sharp rebuke on Sunday when an Assad adviser said Syria would not accept interference in its affairs.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had asked Davutoglu to reinforce a demand from Washington that Syria return the army to barracks immediately and release prisoners.

Syria has faced nearly five months of protests against Assad's 11-year rule, inspired by Arab revolts which overthrew leaders in Egypt and Tunisia earlier this year.

Last week Assad sent troops and tanks to quell the mostly Sunni Muslim city of Hama in central Syria and the army launched a similar assault on Sunday against Deir al-Zor.

An armored column also pushed toward the center of the city on Tuesday, with troops storming houses and making arrests in the provincial capital of an oil region bordering Iraq's Sunni heartland, a resident said.

"They are now about one kilometer from downtown. When they finish with one district, they move to another," said the resident, who gave his name as Iyad.

GROWING ISOLATION

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has described Syria's uprising as a domestic issue for Turkey, because of their 850 km (530 mile) shared border.

Increasing the pressure on Assad, Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia issued a blunt warning that he risked turmoil unless he stopped the bloodshed and adopted reforms. Kuwait and Bahrain followed the kingdom in recalling their ambassadors.

The withdrawal of envoys left Assad with few diplomatic friends bar Iran. Western states have imposed sanctions on his top officials, while states with close ties to Damascus such as Russia and Turkey have warned Assad he is running out of time.

Nevertheless, no country has proposed military action such as that launched against Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In Deir al-Zor, a resident said on Monday 65 people had been killed since tanks and armored vehicles barreled into the city, 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Damascus on Sunday.

The British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said among the dead were a mother and her two children, an elderly woman and a girl. Syria has expelled most independent media since the revolt began, making it hard to confirm accounts.

Syrian authorities have denied that any Deir al-Zor assault took place. The official state news agency said "not a single tank has entered Deir al-Zor" and reports of tanks in the city were "the work of provocateur satellite channels."

The authorities say they have faced attacks since the protests erupted in March, blaming armed saboteurs for civilian deaths and accusing them of killing 500 security personnel.

State television broadcast footage on Sunday of mutilated bodies floating in the Orontes river in Hama, saying 17 police had been ambushed and killed in the central Syrian city.

The official SANA news agency said on Monday the military was starting to pull out of Hama after it said they had helped restore order. Residents said there were still tanks in parts of the city and security forces were making arrests.

About 1,500 people were detained in Hama's Jarajima district and troops killed three civilians, the Observatory said.

Activists say at least 130 people were killed in Hama, where Assad's father crushed an armed Islamist uprising in 1982, and one group has put the death toll at over 300.

Like most of Syria, ruled by Assad's minority Alawite family, Hama and Deir al-Zor are mainly Sunni cities, and the crackdowns there resonate with Sunnis, who form the majority in the region and govern most Arab countries.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut and Ankara bureau; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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More than 50 killed as Assad defends Syria crackdown (AFP)

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian security forces killed more than 50 people on Sunday, activists said, as the president defended the crackdown on "outlaws" and the pope and Arab League added their voices to condemnation of the violence.

The US envoy to Damascus, Robert Ford, who returned to Syria on Thursday, also said in a US television interview broadcast on Sunday that Washington will "try to ratchet up the pressure" on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The latest bloodshed came as Pope Benedict XVI said he was "following with deep concern the dramatic and increasing episodes of violence in Syria that have led to numerous victims and grave suffering."

Ford, who infuriated the Syrian authorities with a visit to the flashpoint protest city of Hama last month, also told ABC news that the violence against protesters was "grotesque" and "abhorrent."

Activists said security forces backed by tanks killed 42 civilians in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor and at least 10 more in the central town of Hula on Sunday.

"Forty-two civilians have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Deir Ezzor by gunfire from the armed forces and security agents," Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights head Abdel Karim Rihawi told AFP.

Rihawi said that 28 people were killed in Deir Ezzor's Al-Jura neighbourhood and 14 died in Huweika district, adding that "thousands of people have fled the city heading further north."

In Hula in Homs district, at least 10 people were killed in a military assault, Rihawi said.

"About 25 tanks and troop carriers entered Hula and carried out military operations," another activist, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said earlier.

The Local Coordination Committees which organised the protests said on Facebook that snipers were on rooftops in Deir Ezzor "are firing on anything that moves," and also gave a toll of 42 dead.

But Assad roundly defended his security forces.

"To deal with outlaws who cut off roads, seal towns and terrorise residents is a duty of the state which must defend security and protect the lives of civilians," state news agency SANA quoted him as saying.

In contrast to Assad's reference to "outlaws," the pope called on Sunday for an adequate response to the "legitimate aspirations" of the Syrian people.

Ford told ABC he would continue travelling across Syria to observe the crackdown first-hand.

"I don't particularly care (about angering Damascus), because we have to show our solidarity with peaceful protesters," said Ford.

"I'd do it again tomorrow if I have to. I'm going to keep moving around the country. I can't stop."

"We are going to try to ratchet up the pressure," Ford said.

The Arab League also made its first official statement on the unrest, calling on Damascus to "immediately" stop the violence that has rocked the country since mid-March.

Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi also urged an "impartial probe" into the bloodshed, warning against "chaos" and "religious strife" in Syria, it said.

Arabi expressed his "increasing concern" because of "the deterioration of the security situation in Syria following the rise in violence and military operations in Hama, Deir Ezzor and several regions."

On Saturday UN chief Ban Ki-moon phoned Assad to express similar concerns, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Ban "reflected to the Syrian president the clear message sent by the (UN) Security Council and urged the president to stop the use of military force against civilians immediately."

US and European leaders have pledged to consider new steps to punish Syria after security forces killed more than 30 people on the first Friday of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting.

Syria's government has sought to crush the democracy movement with force, leaving at least 2,059 people dead, including 391 members of the security forces, according to the Syrian Observatory.

The Assad regime has pledged reform and accused "armed terrorist gangs" of fomenting the unrest.

On Saturday Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said "free and transparent" elections to a new parliament would be held by the end of 2011 and that the regime was committed to reform announced by Assad.

Two days earlier Assad issued a decree allowing opposition political parties, and in April ordered an end to five decades of draconian emergency rule and abolished the feared state security courts.

In June he said talks could lead to a new constitution and end his Baath party's monopoly on power, concessions largely dismissed by the opposition as a ploy to deflect world condemnation.

When the protest movement began nearly five months ago, demonstrators rallied for greater freedoms.

But they later demanded the fall of the regime, inspired by Arab uprisings that ousted the autocratic leaders of Tunisia and Egypt.

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Assad loyalists storm U.S. and French embassies in Syria (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Protesters loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad briefly broke into the U.S. embassy in Damascus on Monday and security guards used live ammunition to prevent them storming the French embassy, diplomats said.

No casualties were reported in the attacks but a U.S. official said Washington condemned Syria's slow response and its failure to the prevent the assault on its embassy.

The attacks followed a visit by the U.S. and French ambassadors to the city of Hama last week in support of the hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators who have been gathering there despite attacks by Syrian forces.

"We are calling in the Syrian charge (d'affaires) to complain," said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"We feel they failed (in their responsibility to protect U.S. diplomats). We are going to condemn their slow response."

Human rights groups say at least 1,400 civilians have been killed since an uprising began in March against Assad's autocratic rule, posing the biggest threat to his leadership since he succeeded his father 11 years ago.

In other violence on Monday, Syrian forces killed one civilian and wounded 20 in heavy-machinegun fire on Homs, Syria's third city, and went house-to-house arresting suspected opponents in Hama, human rights activists said.

Despite using force to crush the protests, Assad has also called for talks on reforms. But many opposition figures have refused to attend a two-day conference in the capital, saying it was futile as long as violence continued.

"Dialogue can only work when both parties respect each other and look at each other as equals," said Ayman Abdel-nour, the Gulf-based editor of all4syria.com website. "At the moment, there is no dialogue."

Vice President Farouq al-Shara told the opening ceremony of the Damascus conference on Sunday that the authorities would open a new page, hinting at allowing political parties, other than the ruling Baath Party, to operate.

The meeting was expected to discuss legislation which would allow a multi-party system and constitutional amendments.

But independent analysts said reform would remain on paper as long as the security apparatus and Assad loyalists continue to operate with impunity against demonstrators.

Hilal Khashan, a Lebanon-based political commentator, said Assad's call for dialogue was not serious and aimed at buying time.

"If the regime was serious about reforms, they would change their security measures. Nobody in their sound mind would expect anything from Damascus as genuine political reform. The regime is buying time," he added.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and by Paris and Washington bureau; editing by Timothy Heritage and Jon Boyle)

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Assad sacks Hama governor, Syria death toll mounts (AFP)

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sacked the governor of Hama on Saturday, a day after hundreds of thousands rallied against the regime in the hotbed city, as activists said the latest crackdown cost 28 lives.

Anti-regime dissent billowed on Friday in response to a call by a Facebook group for massive protests to demand the ouster of Assad and his autocratic regime.

In Hama alone, 500,000 people took to the streets, without security forces intervening, activists said, calling it the single largest demonstration of its kind since the pro-democracy movement erupted on March 15.

Assad reacted to the affront by sacking the governor of Hama, a city with a bloody past where an estimated 20,000 people were killed in 1982 when the army put down an Islamist revolt against the rule of his late father, Hafez al-Assad.

"The Syrian president signed a decree today relieving Doctor Ahmad Khaled Abdel Aziz of his post as governor of Hama," said a news flash on state television.

Most of Friday's victims were killed in northwest Syria's Idlib province, where troops backed by tanks have swept through villages all week to crush dissent.

"Sixteen people were killed" in Idlib on Friday, Ammar Qorabi, the head of the National Organisation for Human Rights, said on Saturday.

Three of them were women who died when the army shelled a chicken hatchery in the village of Al-Bara, Qorabi said.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of arrests were made in villages of the Idlib region, including of the top Muslim cleric of Al-Bara.

And at least 20 people were arrested in the Daraya area near Damascus for having taken part in anti-regime protests.

Another 10 people were killed on Friday when security forces opened fire to disperse protests in several cities, including eight in the central protest hub of Homs and two in the Damascus neighbourhood of Qadam.

And one person was reported killed in Syria's second-largest city Aleppo and another in the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia.

Friday's protests followed a call from the Facebook group The Syrian Revolution 2011, which urged people to rally, branding July 1 "the Friday of departure."

"We don't love you... Go away, you and your party," it said in a message addressed to Assad.

Qorabi, in a statement, said Friday's protests were the largest since mid-March and had spread to more Syrian regions.

"The number of protesters who took to the streets on Friday was one of the largest. Demonstrators marched in at least 268 Syrian regions compared to 202 regions last week," he said.

The head of the Syrian Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, spoke of 500,000 protesters in Hama.

Another activist said that "more than 400,000 marched" while a third said more than 200,000 people gathered in the city's Assi Square, stretching for more than a kilometre (nearly a mile), with security forces keeping out of sight.

There were similar scenes elsewhere across the country, including in Homs, another hotbed of protest and Syria's third-largest city, where one activist said "more than 100,000 people" rallied as tanks were deployed.

Homs was the focus of a report released on Saturday by the New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch, which denounced a rising death toll there and security forces for "terrorising people."

Citing Syrian rights groups and witnesses, HRW said 21 people had been killed in a government crackdown in Homs since June 17.

"During the city?s ongoing protests, security forces have beaten protesters with clubs, vandalised private property and broken into homes where they suspected protesters had sought refuge," HRW said.

"Security forces dressed in civilian clothes have detained protesters repeatedly, often travelling in taxis to approach and detain people," it added.

"Syria?s authorities accuse protesters of being ?armed gangs,? but it is their security forces who terrorise people," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.

More than 1,360 civilians have been killed in the crackdown against pro-democracy protests since mid-March, according to human rights groups, while thousands have been arrested.

The Syrian Observatory says 343 security force personnel have also died.

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Six Syrians killed as 500,000 protest against Assad (AFP)

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian security forces killed at least six demonstrators as more than half a million people took to the streets across the country on Friday to demand the departure of Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

The protests came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said time was running out for the Syrian president, as he pursues a violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists that has killed more than 1,300 people since mid-March.

At least three people died in the central city of Homs when security forces opened fire, two were killed in Damascus and one in Daraya, near the capital, activist Ammar Qorabi told AFP in Nicosia.

Qorabi, who runs the National Organisation of Human Rights and is based in Egypt, said by telephone that a seventh person was killed on Friday in an unrelated drive-by grenade attack.

State television gave a conflicting toll, saying gunmen killed one demonstrator in Damascus and two people in Homs, one a policeman.

Waves of protesters flooded the streets nationwide to demand the fall of the regime, with varying reports putting the turnout in the central city of Hama alone at more than half a million.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, spoke of 500,000 protesters and said this was "the biggest demonstration since the Syrian Revolution broke out" on March 15.

Another activist said that "more than 400,000 marched," adding that "they came from all over, from mosques and nearby towns."

A third said more than 200,000 had gathered in the city's Assi Square, stretching for more than one kilometre, and that there was no sign of security forces.

Hama has a bloody past. In 1982, an estimated 20,000 people were killed when the army put down an Islamist revolt.

Demonstrations also gripped the protest hub of Homs where one activist said "more than 100,000 people" protested in several districts as tanks were deployed.

Abdel Karim Rihawi, president of the Syrian League for Human Rights, said "tens of thousands of protesters headed towards Deir Ezzor's Freedom Square upon leaving the mosques" after the weekly prayers in the eastern oil hub on the Euphrates River.

In Jabal al-Zawiyah, which has been the theatre of army operations since Tuesday, "tens of thousands of people started to march from the village towards Maaret al-Numan," he told AFP.

State television reported pro-regime demonstrations in the northern commercial hub of Aleppo and in Suweida, in the south, with people chanting "God, Syria, Bashar and that's it."

Overnight, Abdel Rahman said security forces killed three civilians in Jabal al-Zawiyah, and explosions were heard in the coastal city of Latakia.

Meanwhile Clinton criticised the Assad regime's incoherence in authorising an opposition meeting while stifling dissent.

"Allowing one meeting of the opposition in Damascus is not sufficient," she told reporters on a visit to Lithuania.

"I'm just hurt by recent reports of continuing violence on the border and in Aleppo, where demonstrators have been beaten, attacked with knives by government-organised groups and security forces," Clinton said.

"It is absolutely clear that the Syrian government is running out of time. There isn't any question about that."

Friday's protests followed a call from the Facebook group, The Syrian Revolution 2011 group, which called on people to rally, branding July 1 "the Friday of departure" and saying in a message to Assad: "We don't love you... Go away, you and your party."

Hundreds of protesters in Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, were beaten back on Thursday by baton-wielding security forces, activists said.

On Thursday, the opposition announced the creation of a "national coordination committee" of exiled dissidents and opponents at home to push for democratic reforms.

The announcement came after about 160 dissidents, several of whom have spent years in jail, gathered Monday in Damascus, vowing to press ahead with a "peaceful uprising for freedom and democracy and pluralism to establish a democratic state through peaceful means."

The dissidents demanded the right to demonstrate peacefully, the release of political prisoners, freedom of the press, the safe return of refugees and moves to prevent foreign intervention.

The Observatory says 1,360 civilians have been killed since mid-March and that 343 security force personnel have also died. Thousands have been arrested.

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