Syria crisis: Scores reported killed as violence grows..claims 10,000 desert army

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16274529

Scores of people have been killed in Syria, opposition activists say, in a second day of heavy bloodshed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rightsput the death toll at 47, while the Local Co-ordination Committees said as many as 78 people were killed.

Meanwhile video has emerged of a young boy, whose body was apparently torn in half by shelling in the city of Homs.

In the north-west, dozens of army deserters, security forces members and civilians reportedly died in clashes.

The claims have not been independently verified, as foreign media are banned from reporting in Syria.

The UN says more than 5,000 people have been killed across Syria since protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March.

Damascus says it is fighting “armed terrorist gangs”, who want to destabilise the country.

Video footage emerged on Tuesday, allegedly showing the body of a young boy torn in half in the ruins of two houses hit by army shelling in Homs.

Meanwhile, Syria’s air and naval forces conducted live-fire manoeuvres aimed testing their readiness to repulse “any aggression against the homeland,” the official Sana news agency reported.

On Monday, more than 70 soldiers were shot dead after deserting their positions in Idlib, activists said.

Syrian opposition sources said the army was intensifying its campaign in Idlib ahead of the expected deployment of observers who will monitor the Syrian government’s implementation of an Arab League peace initiative.

League officials have said that the first monitors could be in the country as early as Thursday.

This follows the announcement that Damascus had agreed to the observer mission on Monday.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the country’s sovereignty would be protected because the Arab League had agreed to amendments to the deal, which also calls for all violence to be halted, for the withdrawal of troops from the streets, and the release of detainees.

The observers would be “free” in their movements and “under the protection of the Syrian government”, Mr Muallem added, but would not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites.

The observers will have a one-month mandate that can be extended by another month if both sides agree.

The leader of the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group, has dismissed the government’s decision as “just a ploy”.

Activists say that if the government does withdraw the army, many areas will immediately fall out of its control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Observatory_For_Human_Rights

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is a UK-based group opposed to the rule of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, purporting to be a human rights organisation.

The group only reports on alleged human rights violations committed by the Syrian government, not on possible human rights violations by the opposition.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/assad-losing-control-as-10-000-soldiers-desert-syrian-military-1.402625

More than 10,000 soldiers have deserted the Syrian army, sources say, with as many as half the conscripts not reporting in the last three call-ups.

According to Western intelligence agencies, even though the top brass is still loyal to President Bashar Assad, lower-level officers are deserting in large numbers, and in some cases, whole units have deserted en masse.

The army is considered the main factor safeguarding Assad’s regime, after mass protests began in the south in March and spread throughout the country, inspired by the demonstrations elsewhere in the Arab world.

On Tuesday, at least 73 people were killed in Syria in clashes between the army and opposition, most of them in Homs in the west and Idlib in the northwest. The 73 dead added to the 100 who were killed on Monday, among them 14 soldiers ambushed by opposition forces, human rights groups said.

The groups added that Assad’s forces were transferring wounded opposition activists from hospitals to army bases to prevent them from testifying to Arab League observers expected to arrive under a deal struck on Monday.

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i am not going to pretend i know whos telling the truth here..somebody is being killed and someone is doing the killing..but who..how do we know? how do we trust the numbers they say are being killed?

we have to look at the past..look to libya..remember what was discovered amongst those reports, 10, 000 troops seems way to large,the video footage is unverifiable of shootings at protests..

i have included the SOHR because its very important..most of these opposition groups are based in the UK as well dont forget..they dont report on crimes they commit..get that?..so what sort of “journalism” is being supplied by them to the media?

today i heard calls for a “safe” zone..thats code for NFZ..

so who will benefit from a war in syria?..or should we say, humanitarian campaign in “greater jordan”?

401

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~ by seeker401 on December 22, 2011.