Nine killed in fresh Syria clashes

The uprising against Syria's regime shows no sign of abating

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Syria Crisis

• Inching towards civil war
• The view from next door
• Q&A: Syria sanctions
• Impact of sanctions

At least nine people have died in fresh clashes in Syria as opposition activists called a general strike.

Two people died in clashes between troops and deserters in the northern Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

There were also reports of hundreds of defectors and troops clashing in the south, near the border with Jordan.

The UN estimates more than 4,000 people have died in the nine-month uprising, including 307 children.

Many of those casualties have been reported to be in Homs, one of the main centres of anti-government protests.

Syria severely restricts access to foreign media so reports of unrest cannot be verified.

'Burned shops'

Heavy machine-gun fire was heard and two armoured carriers were burned in pre-dawn clashes in Kfar Takharim town in Idlib province, the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC) in Syria reported violence also in the cities of Homs and Hama, as well as the southern province of Daraa. It said nine people had died, including a young girl.

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) has expressed fears of an imminent military offensive on Homs.

Reuters news agency quoted residents and activists as saying that hundreds of army defectors had clashed with loyalist forces backed by tanks in the town of Busra al-Harir, not far from the border with Jordan.

The Observatory said that a general strike called by opposition activists was being "very widely observed" in southern Syria's Daraa province on Sunday, the start of the working week.

And schoolchildren and civil servants stayed at home in some parts of Damascus, although central districts opened as normal, the activist group said.

However, shopkeepers who kept the shutters down in Idlib province had their property burned by troops who issued a warning via loudspeakers from a nearby mosque, the LCC said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is under international pressure to end the continuing crackdown on anti-government protesters.

The Arab League is reported to be holding two emergency meetings in the coming days, to discuss Damascus's response to the League's plan to send in monitors.

Last month the League suspended Syria's membership in protest at the continuing crackdown and also imposed economic sanctions.

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Syria Crisis

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• The view from next door

• Q&A: Syria sanctions

• Impact of sanctions

• Meeting Syrian rebel leader

• Businesses loyal

• Guide to opposition

• What you need to know Watch

• Jordan king's candid call

• Revolution at the Arab League

• Guide: Syria Crisis

• Syrian opposition split on issues

• Undercover in Homs

• Why West was rebuffed at UN

• Syria: 'Our weapon is the camera'

Profiles

• Homs: 'Capital of revolution'

• Profile: Bashar al-Assad

• Country profile: Syria

• President's inner circle

• Protest leaders

• Ruling family dynamics

Around the web

• BBC Arabic website

• Revolution 2011 on Facebook

• Syrian state news agency Sana

• Human Rights Observatory (Arabic)

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Related Internet links

• Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria
• Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

via bbc.co.uk

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