Rights group: Security forces kill 13 in Syrian city
(CNN) -- Security forces killed 13 people during overnight clashes in the western Syrian industrial city of Homs, a human rights group said Tuesday.
The military operation that caused the deaths continued Tuesday, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
CNN could not independently verify the information.
Government officials blamed the latest round of violence on "terrorists," according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
"The Interior Ministry will be firm in dealing with these armed and terrorist members and will use all means necessary to reduce their danger and preserve the safety of the homeland and the citizen," according to a SANA report.
Residents in Homs said they could hear bursts of heavy machine guns, and helicopters hovered over the city, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria. There were reports of house raids since the early morning hours in the Talbeseh neighborhood, said the umbrella group that organizes locals and eyewitnesses through the Internet. The group also said electricity was turned off in most of the city.
"Sporadic gunfire is nonstop since six last night as the security forces attack the Sunni neighborhood of al-Khaldiya," an eyewitness said as bullets were heard in the background.
The eyewitness did not want to be identified, fearing his safety.
Limited desertions in the nearby village of Hayt led to fierce fighting between the deserted troops and the military on Monday, resulting in four deaths and five injuries, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria said.
Some soldiers managed to escape and take refuge in homes as hundreds of residents chose to flee to Lebanon amidst the massive presence of troops of the Syrian military, the group added.
Elsewhere, electricity and water remain cut off in some areas of Aleppo after a large protest on Monday, the group said.
A video surfaced Monday on the Internet that seems to show members of the Syrian military humiliating civilian men by tying their hands and blindfolding their eyes as they are dragged in their undergarments.
Other videos showed night anti-government protests in the towns of Saraqeb, Qameshlo and Idlib. CNN could not verify the authenticity of the videos.
This unrest in Syria began in mid-March after teens were arrested for writing anti-government graffiti in Daraa, according to Amnesty International. As the clashes intensified, demonstrators changed their demands from calls for freedom and an end to abuses by the security forces to calls for the regime＇s overthrow.
On April 19, Syria＇s Cabinet lifted an emergency law that had been in effect since 1963. But security forces then moved quickly to crack down. Government opponents have alleged massive human rights abuses. |
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