23 killed in Syrian unrest
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Xinhua, September 8, 2011
An activist group said 23 people were killed Wednesday across Syria in one of the security campaigns targeting central Syria.
The London-based Observatory for Human Rights was cited Thursday by Al-Jazeera TV and BBC networks as reporting that 21 people were killed in the central city of Homs and two others in northern Idlib province.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the observatory, reportedly said that there was heavy shooting in the Bab Sba'a area and other neighborhoods in Homs.
The BBC cited activists as commenting that the Syrian authorities have ramped up its efforts in recent weeks to suppress the protests and made large-scale arrests. It also said Syrian soldiers in tanks were spotted early Wednesday entering Homs.
The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), another activists' network, said security forces "opened fire and sound bombs to terrorize the population near the police headquarters around the castle in Homs," according to BBC.
Phone lines and internet services were cut off in parts of Homs, said the LCC.
The reports, however, could not be independently verified as journalists are banned from heading to the restive areas.
Syria has been accusing Al-Jazeera and other media of ignoring the facts on the ground as well as incitement and fabricating events in their coverage of the protests.
Meanwhile, Syrian official news agency SANA said late Wednesday that eight law-enforcement and security members were killed by armed groups in several areas in Homs.
It said special apparatuses had dealt with the armed group and left five of its members killed and others arrested.
The agency quoted an unnamed military source as saying that security forces hunted down and confronted another "terrorist" group at al-Hamidieah neighborhood in Homs and confiscated automatic rifles, explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades.
The source said the terrorist group had booby trapped the Hamidieah area and experts were called to dismantle the explosives.
Also on Wednesday, about 11 law-enforcement members and four civilians, including a father and his two sons, were injured when an explosive device, set by armed terrorist groups, exploded in the southern town of Naeima near Idlib province, according to SANA.
Syria has been in unrest since mid-March when anti-government protests broke out in the southern province of Daraa and spread to other cities.
Activists and human rights groups said more than 2,200 civilians have been killed in the alleged government operation against the protest movement, but the Syrian government disputes the toll, blaming the months-long unrest on armed groups backed by foreign conspiracy.
The Syrian authorities have vowed to track down gunmen who have intimidated the people and damaged public and private properties.
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