UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday denounced the “escalating violence” in Syria and called on local authorities to “immediately” stop the bloody repression.
His remarks came as a pro-government newspaper said troops had swept through the central city of Homs, where at least 50 people have been killed in four days of violence, arresting “armed men” and confiscating “stockpiles of weapons.”
“The secretary-general is following with deep concern the escalating violence against peaceful protesters in Syria,” said spokesman Martin Nesirky, who called on the government to “stop the repression immediately.”
“The secretary-general reiterates his call for a credible and inclusive dialogue, which should be carried out without delay,” Nesirky said.
Pro-government daily al-Watan said “an uneasy calm has reigned in Homs since Tuesday afternoon after top-quality operations by the army, who arrested a number of armed men and seized large quantities of weapons.”
There were “bloody clashes” that left “soldiers and an officer wounded,” it said.
Al-Watan added that the “dialogue launched by civic leaders had resumed in a bid to contain dissent and re-establish unity” in Homs, 160km north of the capital.
Activists said pro-regime gunmen have killed at least 20 people in Homs since Monday, including seven mourners at a funeral.
Shots were heard in Homs on Wednesday as security forces surrounded the city and arrested 150 people, Abdel Karim Rihawi of the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights said.
Meanwhile, security services arrested opposition figure Georges Sabra and a lawyer, the league said.
“At 2am, security forces stormed the home of Georges Sabra, head of the Syrian Democratic People’s Party, in Qatana,” west of Damascus where dozens were arrested, Rihawi said.
Sabra had been arrested on April 10 and detained for a month.
His party is associated with the 2005 Damascus Declaration for Democratic National Change, an opposition movement calling for democratic reforms in Syria.
However, Ali Abdullah, a dissident author who was arrested on Sunday as security forces swooped in the town of Qatana, 25km south of Damascus, was released, Rihawi said.
In Aleppo, Syria’s second city, security forces arrested lawyer Jamal Tahan in his home. Tahan is a well-known critic of the regime, the rights group said.
In Duma, just north of the capital, activists said security forces swept through the town early on Wednesday and arrested a number of people.
State television showed footage of pro-regime demonstrators carrying a massive flag down the streets of Suweida, a city south of Damascus.
Meanwhile, Damascus warned French Ambassador Eric Chevalier and US Ambassador Robert Ford not to venture beyond the capital.
“We will impose a ban on any [diplomatic] travel more than 25km outside Damascus, if the ambassadors continue to ignore [our] guidance,” Muallem told the envoys at a meeting broadcast by state television.
“I hope that we will not be forced to impose the ban,” he added.
“We did not expel the two ambassadors because we had hoped to maintain better relations in future,” he said.
Ford and Chevallier visited Hama on July 7 amid repeated large demonstrations in the city against Assad.
Damascus reacted furiously to the visit, accusing the US ambassador of seeking to undermine the stability of Syria and calling in both envoys for consultations.
In other developments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied in an interview with al-Arabiya television that Israel wanted to see Assad remain in power.
“We don’t intervene in what happens in Syria, but we obviously would like to have peaceful relations,” he said.
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