Syria pushes rebels out from region, denies it's in civil war
Source: Agencies |
June 14, 2012, Thursday
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SYRIAN forces pushed out scores of rebels holed up in a rebellious area near the Mediterranean coast yesterday and state television said they retook control of the region after eight days of fierce shelling and clashes.
The mountainous Haffa region is one of several areas where government forces are battling rebels for control in escalating violence. Recovering it is particularly important to the regime because the town is about 30 kilometers from President Bashar Assad's hometown of Kardaha in Latakia province. Latakia is the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad and the ruling elite belong, although there is a mix of religious groups there.
France said Syria is already in a civil war, echoing a similar statement by UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous on Tuesday.
The new French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said in Paris: "If you can't call it a civil war, then there are no words to describe it."
He added that to stop "this civil war from worsening," Assad must leave power and Syrian opposition groups must start a new government. He said he will be in personal contact with the opposition inside Syria.
Earlier, Syria's Foreign Ministry expressed "astonishment" over Ladsous' statement that the country was already in a civil war. The ministry said it lacked objectivity, was "far from reality" and inaccurate.
"Syria is not witnessing a civil war but rather an armed conflict to uproot terrorism and confront killings, kidnappings, bombings ... and other brutal acts by armed terrorist groups," the ministry said.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland warned two days ago that Assad's forces could commit massacres in Haffa, drawing condemnation from the Syrian Foreign Ministry which accused the US of "blatant interference" in the country's internal affairs.
State television said regime forces had "cleansed" Haffa from "armed terrorist groups" and the Foreign Ministry urged UN observers to immediately head there.
"This invitation comes in the framework of the observers' mission to find out what is happening on the ground and to check what the terrorist groups have done," a statement said.
It was not clear whether UN observers in Syria would be able to reach Haffa. On Tuesday, an angry crowd hurled rocks and sticks at the observers' vehicles as they approached, and they turned back. Sausan Ghosheh, a spokeswoman for the observers, said they have been trying to reach Haffa since June 7.
Turkey said it was concerned that the conflict could spill over its borders as the number of Syrian refugees rose to more than 29,000.
"We are disturbed by the possibility that it could spread to us," Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru told state-run television. Koru said 1,400 more Syrian refugees arrived in Turkey in the last two days.
The mountainous Haffa region is one of several areas where government forces are battling rebels for control in escalating violence. Recovering it is particularly important to the regime because the town is about 30 kilometers from President Bashar Assad's hometown of Kardaha in Latakia province. Latakia is the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad and the ruling elite belong, although there is a mix of religious groups there.
France said Syria is already in a civil war, echoing a similar statement by UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous on Tuesday.
The new French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said in Paris: "If you can't call it a civil war, then there are no words to describe it."
He added that to stop "this civil war from worsening," Assad must leave power and Syrian opposition groups must start a new government. He said he will be in personal contact with the opposition inside Syria.
Earlier, Syria's Foreign Ministry expressed "astonishment" over Ladsous' statement that the country was already in a civil war. The ministry said it lacked objectivity, was "far from reality" and inaccurate.
"Syria is not witnessing a civil war but rather an armed conflict to uproot terrorism and confront killings, kidnappings, bombings ... and other brutal acts by armed terrorist groups," the ministry said.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland warned two days ago that Assad's forces could commit massacres in Haffa, drawing condemnation from the Syrian Foreign Ministry which accused the US of "blatant interference" in the country's internal affairs.
State television said regime forces had "cleansed" Haffa from "armed terrorist groups" and the Foreign Ministry urged UN observers to immediately head there.
"This invitation comes in the framework of the observers' mission to find out what is happening on the ground and to check what the terrorist groups have done," a statement said.
It was not clear whether UN observers in Syria would be able to reach Haffa. On Tuesday, an angry crowd hurled rocks and sticks at the observers' vehicles as they approached, and they turned back. Sausan Ghosheh, a spokeswoman for the observers, said they have been trying to reach Haffa since June 7.
Turkey said it was concerned that the conflict could spill over its borders as the number of Syrian refugees rose to more than 29,000.
"We are disturbed by the possibility that it could spread to us," Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru told state-run television. Koru said 1,400 more Syrian refugees arrived in Turkey in the last two days.
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