Fierce fighting between regime troops and armed rebels rocked parts of Damascus overnight, monitors said yesterday, as the G8 called for a “political transition” to end relentless violence sweeping Syria.
The clashes in the Syrian capital came hours after a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb in Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria’s biggest city, killing nine people and adding urgency to the G8 calls for all sides to adhere to a UN-brokered truce.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting erupted during the night in the Kafr Sousa district of south Damascus, but said there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Local Coordination Committees, an anti-regime network of activists on the ground in Syria, said Kafr Sousa saw the “arrival of huge reinforcements” of regime troops in the wake of the fighting.
Clashes also broke out in other parts of southern Damascus, the Britain-based Observatory said, adding that gunfire had during the night echoed across the city center.
“Gunfire was heard in Abbasiyyin Square, and Baghdad and Thawra streets,” the watchdog said, referring to high-security areas of the city.
Also overnight, regime forces shelled the outskirts of Douma, a bastion of anti-regime sentiment located just north of Damascus, the Observatory said.
On Saturday, 23 people were killed in violence across Syria, including those who died in the Deir Ezzor suicide blast, according to the Observatory.
The watchdog said the blast occurred on a road housing a military and air force intelligence headquarters and a military hospital, while state television said a “terrorist suicide bomber” used 1,000kg of explosives in the attack on Deir Ezzor’s Ghazi Ayyash neighborhood.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing but, as typically happens in such cases, the opposition blamed it on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The government repeatedly blames bomb attacks on “armed terrorist groups” and al-Qaeda.
More than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died in Syria since an anti-regime revolt broke out in March last year, according to the Observatory.
The G8 — which includes long-time Syrian ally Russia — called on Saturday for a “Syrian-led, inclusive political transition leading to a democratic, plural political system.”
The group, huddled at Camp David, outside Washington, also called on the Syrian government and all parties to “immediately and fully adhere” to an internationally backed plan to end violence.
“We remain appalled by the loss of life, humanitarian crisis, and serious and widespread human rights abuses in Syria,” a joint statement said. “The Syrian government and all parties must immediately and fully adhere to commitments to implement the six-point plan of UN and Arab League Joint Special Envoy ... Kofi Annan.”
That, they said, includes “immediately ceasing all violence.”
However, Russia said there could be no regime change through force.
“One has to give an opportunity to the Syrians to sort out their affairs themselves,” the Kremlin’s Africa envoy, Mikhail Margelov, told reporters in Washington. “You cannot use an axe to shear your way through the Syrian crisis, you have to use a pair of pincers to somehow sort it out.”
What started out as a popular uprising has over time developed into an increasingly militarized revolt, after al-Assad’s regime used force to crack down on peaceful protests.
With the killings unabated, Annan plans to return to Damascus soon to further efforts to find a peaceful solution but a date has yet to be announced.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including