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US says Syria dead ‘exceed 2,000′
4 August 2011 Last updated at 18:59 ET
Tanks were said to be heading to Hama to reinforce troops already thereThe Syrian government is responsible for more than 2,000 deaths in its crackdown against protests, says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
She spoke as an army assault against protest hub Hama was reported to have killed dozens of people in recent days.
Residents of the city say snipers and tanks are firing on civilians and food and medicine are running low.
Activists have dismissed a government decree to allow opposition parties after decades of Baath party rule.
Multi-party rule was a key demand of protesters who have been taking to the streets in large numbers across Syria since mid-March to call for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
Mrs Clinton repeated an earlier statement that the United States believed Mr Assad had lost legitimacy in Syria.
“We’ve seen the Assad regime continue and intensify its assault against its own people this week,” she said on Thursday.
“We think to date the government is responsible for the deaths of more than 2,000 people of all ages.”
She added that the US and its allies were working to apply more pressure on Syria beyond the addition of more individuals to a sanctions blacklist.
Human rights have estimated that more than 1,600 civilians have been killed since anti-government protests began in March.
At least 150 people have been killed since Sunday, mainly in Hama, the rights groups say, as the military intensifies its efforts to quell dissent.
Mr Assad blames the current violence on “armed criminal gangs” backed by unspecified foreign powers.
‘Sad fate’
International criticism of Syria has been mounting since the UN Security Council adopted a statement on Wednesday condemning the government of President Assad for “widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians”.
President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, long an ally of Syria, said Mr Assad would “face a sad fate” unless he urgently carried out reforms and reconciled with the opposition.
The BBC’s Jim Muir says almost no information is coming from Hama, as unverified footage claims to show tanks on the move in the city
And EU states extended their sanctions against Syria, adding more names to a list including President Assad and 34 other people as well as firms linked to the military. They stopped short of targeting the oil industry and banks, however.
Dozens of people are believed to have been killed in a five-day military assault on Hama, with residents saying on Thursday that tanks had shot their way into Assi (Orontes) Square, in the centre of the city of 800,000 people.
Activists said as many as 30 more people were killed in Hama late on Wednesday, after Ramadan prayers.
Communication with the city is all but completely cut off, as are water and electricity, correspondents say.
One resident who escaped the city on Wednesday told the BBC it looked “exactly like a battlefield… like a Gaza Strip kind of city. Like some villages in Iraq when the US army invaded it. That’s how it looks like”.
He said artillery was firing at buildings and snipers were shooting at anyone they saw on the streets.
Many people had left the city, he said, but for those left, food and medicine were running low.
Another resident said “people are being slaughtered like sheep while walking in the street.
“I saw with my own eyes one ng boy on a motorcycle who was carrying vegetables being run over by a tank,” the man told Associated Press news agency.
- Syria’s anti-government protests, inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, first erupted in mid-March after the arrest of a group of teenagers who spray-painted a revolutionary slogan on a wall. The protests soon spread, and human rights activists and opposition groups say 1,700 people have died in the turmoil, while thousands more have been injured.
- Although the arrest of the teenagers in the southern city of Deraa first prompted people to take to the streets, unrest has since spread to other areas, including Hama, Homs, Latakia, Jisr al-Shughour and Baniyas. Demonstrators are demanding greater freedom, an end to corruption, and, increasingly, the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad.
- President Assad’s government has responded to the protests with overwhelming military force, sending tanks and troops into at least nine towns and cities. In Deraa and Homs – where protests have persisted ? amateur video footage shows tanks firing on unarmed protesters, while snipers have been seen shooting at residents venturing outside their homes.
- Some of the bloodiest events have taken place in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour. In early June, officials claimed 120 security personnel were killed by armed gangs, however protesters said the dead were shot by troops for refusing to kill demonstrators. As the military moved to take control of the town, thousands fled to neighbouring Turkey, taking refuge in camps.
- Although the major cities of Damascus and Aleppo have seen pockets of unrest and some protests, it has not been widespread – due partly to a heavy security presence. There have been rallies in the capital – one with an enormous Syrian flag – in support of President Assad, who still receives the backing of many in Syria’s middle class, business elite and minority groups.
- The Assad family has been in power for 40 years, with Bashar al-Assad inheriting office in 2000. The president has opened up the economy, but has continued to jail critics and control the media. He is from the minority Alawite sect – an offshoot of Shia Islam ? but the country’s 20 million people are mainly Sunni. The biggest protests have been in Sunni-majority areas.
- Although the US and EU have condemned the violence and imposed sanctions, the UN Security Council has been unable to agree on a response. Some fear the country could descend into civil war if the government collapsed, while others believe chaos in Syria ? with its strategic location and its web of regional alliances – could destabilise the entire Middle East.
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