The train was carrying 485 people when it derailed about 5
km outside the central city of Homs, a flashpoint in the uprising against
President Bashar Assad. The driver was killed instantly and 14 passengers were
injured, rail officials said.
Ghassan Mustafa Abdul-Aal, the governor of Homs, called it a
"terrorist and criminal" act and said it was a "clear
message" to everyone who says the protest movement is peaceful.
No evidence was provided to support those claims.
The opposition dismissed the accusation and said the regime
was trying to seize on the crash to blunt growing support for a peaceful
uprising calling for democratic change. "If there are saboteurs, they belong
to the regime," Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for
Human Rights in Syria, told The Associated Press. "They want to send the
message that these protests will lead to instability and insecurity in the
country."
Syrian authorities have unleashed a brutal crackdown in an
effort to crush the revolt, and activists say more than 1,600 civilians have
died since the protests erupted in mid-March. The government blames the unrest
on terrorists and foreign extremists, not true reform-seekers.
The regime has banned nearly all foreign media and
restricted coverage of the uprising, making it nearly impossible to
independently verify events on the ground.
The Information Ministry took Syrian journalists to the site
to survey the damage, showing several white-and-red carriages that had jumped
the tracks and one overturned and charred carriage. The rails appeared to have
been ripped apart.
George Al-Qaabari, head of the Syrian railway, said
"divine intervention" kept the losses to a minimum.
Homs has been at the heart of Syria's uprising.
On Saturday, activists and residents reported explosions and
gunfire overnight from the area of the Syrian Military College in Homs.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians had flooded the streets
nationwide Friday in what has become a weekly show of defiance. At least five
people were killed as security forces used batons, bullets and tear gas to
disperse protesters in several places, activists said.
The Syrian conflict has become a test of wills between
protesters emboldened by the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, and an
entrenched family dynasty.
Two special advisers to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
warned that there was a "serious possibility" that Syria has
committed crimes against humanity and pointed to "persistent reports of
widespread and systematic human rights violations by Syrian security forces
responding to anti-government protests across the country."
