BEIRUT, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad made his first appearance in public since a July bomb
attack, attending prayers at a Damascus mosque to mark the start of the Muslim
holiday of Eid, state TV showed.
The first day of Eid on Sunday also gave Assad's opponents a chance to
rally and activists reported protests around Syria, including in the capital,
on a holiday that marked the end of the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Fighting raged on around Syria, killing more than 100 people, an
activist group reported.
Battling a 17-month-old uprising against 42 years of rule by his
family, Assad was filmed at prayer with his prime minister and foreign minister
but not with his vice president, Farouq al-Shara, whose reported defection was
denied the previous day.
Shaken by a July 18 bomb attack in Damascus and defections - including
that of his last prime minister - Assad's recent appearances on state TV had
previously been restricted to footage of him conducting official business. He
was shown swearing in the new prime minister a week ago.
Syria's civil war has intensified since the bombing that killed members
of Assad's inner circle, including his defence minister and brother-in-law.
Assad was pictured on Sunday sitting cross-legged at a mosque in the
Damascus residential district of Muhajirin listening to a sermon in which Syria
was described as a victim of "terrorism" and a conspiracy hatched by
the United States, Israel, the West and Arabs - a reference to Gulf states
which back the revolt.
Sheikh Mohammad Kheir Ghantous said the plot would not "defeat our
Islam, our ideology and our determination".
Dressed in a suit and tie, Assad smiled as he greeted officials
including senior members of his Baath Party.
In attendance were Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem and Prime Minister
Wael al-Halki. He is the replacement for Riyad Hijab, a Sunni who has joined
the opposition to Assad since his defection was announced on Aug. 6.
Hijab was the highest-level Syrian official to desert the government so
far.
With diplomatic efforts to end the war hampered by divisions between
world powers and regional rivalries, Syria is facing the prospect of a
prolonged conflict that threatens to destabilise the Middle East with its sectarian
overtones, pitting a mainly Sunni Muslim opposition against the Alawite
minority to which Assad belongs.
FIGHTING CONTINUES DESPITE START OF EID
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 100
people had been killed on Sunday. The figure could not be independently
verified. It reported fighting in Damascus, Deraa and elsewhere despite the
start of the Eid holiday.
In the rebel-held village of Saraja, near the Turkish border, the
bereaved visited their relatives' graves, in accordance with Eid tradition.
"He had four children, he was my only son," said an elderly
woman who identified herself as Umm Jumaa, speaking in a video obtained by
Reuters as she visited the grave of her slain son.
A trench had been dug nearby in anticipation of more bodies.
Even as President Assad appeared in Damascus, videos posted by
activists on YouTube showed protests against him in and around the capital.
"Oh martyr, your blood will not go to waste," chanted protesters in
Qudsia, a Damascus neighbourhood, in a YouTube posting dated Aug. 19.
"The people want divine protection," chanted several dozen
men shown in another video, posted by activists and dated Aug. 19. It showed a
protest at Yabrud, north of Damascus.
What started out last year as a mostly peaceful protest movement
against Assad's rule is now an armed insurrection.
Government forces have increasingly resorted to air power to hold back
lightly armed insurgents in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria's largest city and
business hub. More than 18,000 people have died in Syria's bloodshed and about
170,000 have fled the country, according to the United Nations. Aleppo has
been the theatre for some of the heaviest recent fighting. Rebels hold several
districts in the country's largest city and have tried to push back against an
army counter-offensive.
U.N. investigators said last week that government forces and allied
militia had committed war crimes, including murder and the torture of civilians
in what seemed to be state-directed policy.
Syrian insurgents had also committed war crimes, including executions,
but on a smaller scale than those by the army and security forces, according to
the investigators.
Syrian state television reported that government forces had thwarted
several attempts by armed groups to infiltrate Syria from Lebanon, a country
whose own fragile stability has been put under strain by the conflict next
door.
No comments:
Post a Comment