BEIRUT – The Syrian government ignored Arab powers’ moves to halt its crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising yesterday, and more opposition supporters and military personnel were killed in unrelenting violence.
The Syrian military said 10 personnel, including six pilots, were killed in an attack on an air force base and that the incident proved foreign involvement in the eight-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
Government forces shot dead at least four demonstrators in the capital, Damascus.
They were appealing for foreign intervention to stop the crackdown, activists said.
Two other civilians were killed in raids on their homes, they said.
Earlier yesterday, a deadline set by the Arab League for Syria to sign a deal allowing peace monitors into the country expired without any government response.
Turkey said it could no longer tolerate any more bloodshed.
More than 3,500 people are estimated by the United Nations to have been killed since March, the majority of them civilians gunned down as they took to the streets of Syrian towns and cities to call for an end to Dr Assad’s rule.
Under the Arab League initiative, Syria agreed to withdraw troops from urban centres, release political prisoners, start a dialogue with the opposition and allow in monitors.
The bloodshed did not stop and Arab foreign ministers said in Cairo on Thursday that unless Syria agreed to the monitors, they would consider imposing sanctions.
These might include halting flights, curbing trade and stopping deals with the central bank.
The league extended the deadline after it expired yesterday, saying it would wait until the day’s end before deciding what to do.
The announcement of the air force attack appeared to be an oblique response.
“An armed terrorist group undertook an evil assassination plot that martyred six pilots, a technical officer and three other personnel on an air force base between Homs and Palmyra,” a military spokesman said on state television.
“This confirms the involvement of foreign elements and their support of these terrorist operations in an effort to weaken the fighting capabilities of our forces,” he said.
The account fits the government narrative that it is facing an armed insurrection by trouble-makers backed by its enemies, rather than a largely peaceful pro-democracy movement inspired by the Arab Spring revolts which toppled the rulers of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya this year.
State television also showed pictures of thousands of people demonstrating in central Damascus “expressing their rejection of the Arab League decision against Syria”.
In neighbouring Turkey, foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he hoped the Syrian government would give a positive response to the Arab League plan.
The increased pressure followed a French proposal for “humanitarian corridors” to be set up through which food and medicine could be shipped to alleviate civilian suffering.
A western diplomatic source said the French plan, with or without approval from Damascus, could link Syrian civilian centres to the frontiers of Turkey and Lebanon, to the Mediterranean coast or to an airport.
French foreign minister Alain Juppé said the plan fell short of a military intervention but he acknowledged that humanitarian convoys would need armed protection. “Of course . . . by international observers, but there is no question of military intervention in Syria,” he said.
The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership two weeks ago. – (Reuters)