Most of the opposition to autocratic President Bashar Assad
has taken the form of peaceful protests by unarmed demonstrators, though
authorities have claimed throughout the uprising that it was being led by armed
gangs and propelled by foreign conspiracies.
Two activists in the area said residents of two towns under
attack in central Homs province since Sunday had taken up arms against troops and
members of the security forces and that there were new casualties, though they
did not know how many.
The Local Coordination Committees in Syria, which help
organize and document the protests, said two bodies were found Monday morning
in the area of Bab Amro cemetery, raising the death toll from the two-day
crackdown in the country’s turbulent heartland to 11.
“The army is facing armed resistance and is not able to
enter the two towns,” said a Homs resident who has wide connections in the
province. “The army is still outside the towns and I was told that army
vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, were burnt.” The other activist
said the army “is being subjected to stiff resistance” by residents using
automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the two towns, Tabliseh and
Rastan. He said many people are armed in Syria and over the past years weapons
have been smuggled into the country from Lebanon and Iraq.
Syria has barred foreign journalists from entering the
country and prevented coverage of the revolt, making it nearly impossible to
independently verify accounts coming out of the country.
Monday’s accounts by the two activists, however, were the
first credible reports of serious resistance by people who have taken up arms.
It is not clear how widespread such resistance might be elsewhere in the
country, but the government has claimed that more than 150 soldiers and
policemen have been killed since the unrest began.
The Local Coordination Committees in Syria said military
forces hit Tabliseh with artillery early Monday and that snipers were deployed
on roofs of mosques.
Syrian troops, backed by tanks, have been conducting
operations in Tabliseh and the nearby town of Rastan Teir Maaleh since Sunday.
Syria’s state-run news agency said four soldiers were killed
and 14 wounded in Tabliseh.
Assad’s use of the military signals he is determined to
crush the two-month-old revolt, despite US and European sanctions, including an
EU assets freeze and a visa ban on Assad and nine members of his regime.
The uprising, which began in mid-March, is posing the most
serious challenge to the Assad family’s 40-year rule. What began as a disparate
movement demanding reforms has erupted into a resilient uprising seeking
Assad’s ouster. Human rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been killed
in the crackdown.
In Geneva, the UN’s top human rights official said Monday
the brutality and magnitude of repression in Syria and Libya against
anti-government groups is “shocking.” Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights, said the crackdown in those countries is marked by an “outright
disregard for basic human rights.” He urged the Syrian government Monday to
allow a UN fact-finding mission to visit the country. The team has been
awaiting Syria’s reply since requesting a visit on May 6.
Rights activist Mustafa Osso said troops have entered
several towns in the restive Homs province and detained hundreds of people
since Sunday. He added that since Sunday night, Rastan and Tabliseh have been
subjected to heavy machine gun fire.
Residents of the Homs towns have held anti-regime protests
since the start of the uprising. Those protests have increased recently, with
crowds taking to the streets day and night to call for the fall of Assad’s
regime, an activist said.
Osso said there were several demonstrations in different
parts of Syria overnight, adding that there were no reports of security forces
opening fire.
In recent days, many Assad opponents have been holding
protests and candlelight vigils at times of the night when the security
presence has thinned out.
