Showdown looming in Syrian city
Source: Agencies |
July 28, 2012, Saturday
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A SHOWDOWN between rebels and government troops in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, is imminent, the UN's human rights office said yesterday, as the Red Cross pulled some of its foreign staff from Damascus out of concern for the safety of its workers.
Syrian rebels have made a run on the country's two biggest cities, Aleppo and Damascus, since last week. Regime forces have responded with overwhelming firepower, ushering in some of the most serious violence the cities have seen in 17 months of conflict.
Rebels have been locked in fierce fighting with government troops in Aleppo for seven days and they are bracing for an attack amid reports that the regime is massing reinforcements to retake the embattled city of 3 million.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said unconfirmed reports are coming out of the capital, Damascus, of extra-judicial killings and shootings of civilians during fighting in the city's suburbs. Pillay said the report "bodes ill for the people of that city (Aleppo)."
Pillay said she believes President Bashar Assad's regime and opposition forces are both committing crimes against humanity and war crimes.
"And it goes without saying, that the increasing use of heavy weapons, tanks, attack helicopters and - reportedly - even jet fighters in urban areas has already caused many civilian casualties and is putting many more at grave risk," she said.
Pillay said there is a pattern of government forces trying to clear areas that it says are occupied by opposition forces. There has been an accompanying rise in the number of reports of opposition fighters torturing or executing prisoners, she said.
A senior UN diplomat close to the mediation effort of international envoy Kofi Annan said they are "watching the situation in Aleppo with great concern."
"The ground is shifting. We use words like 'It's fluid' - and it certainly is ... It has been a roller-coaster ride," the diplomat said. "While we are trying to apportion blame (for the diplomatic standoff), people are dying. Kids are being slaughtered."
Syrian rebels have made a run on the country's two biggest cities, Aleppo and Damascus, since last week. Regime forces have responded with overwhelming firepower, ushering in some of the most serious violence the cities have seen in 17 months of conflict.
Rebels have been locked in fierce fighting with government troops in Aleppo for seven days and they are bracing for an attack amid reports that the regime is massing reinforcements to retake the embattled city of 3 million.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said unconfirmed reports are coming out of the capital, Damascus, of extra-judicial killings and shootings of civilians during fighting in the city's suburbs. Pillay said the report "bodes ill for the people of that city (Aleppo)."
Pillay said she believes President Bashar Assad's regime and opposition forces are both committing crimes against humanity and war crimes.
"And it goes without saying, that the increasing use of heavy weapons, tanks, attack helicopters and - reportedly - even jet fighters in urban areas has already caused many civilian casualties and is putting many more at grave risk," she said.
Pillay said there is a pattern of government forces trying to clear areas that it says are occupied by opposition forces. There has been an accompanying rise in the number of reports of opposition fighters torturing or executing prisoners, she said.
A senior UN diplomat close to the mediation effort of international envoy Kofi Annan said they are "watching the situation in Aleppo with great concern."
"The ground is shifting. We use words like 'It's fluid' - and it certainly is ... It has been a roller-coaster ride," the diplomat said. "While we are trying to apportion blame (for the diplomatic standoff), people are dying. Kids are being slaughtered."
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