Syrian refugees flood Lebanon
‘What are we supposed to do? People are sitting in their homes, they are hitting us with tanks’
QAA, LEBANON— Syrian refugees fleeing to neighbouring Lebanon on Monday said they feared they would be slaughtered in their own homes as government forces hunted down opponents in a brutal offensive against the opposition stronghold of Homs.
“What are we supposed to do? People are sitting in their homes and they are hitting us with tanks,” said Hassana Abu Firas, who fled with two families to the Lebanese border village of Qaa. “Those who can flee, do. Those who can’t will die sitting down.”
The UN refugee agency said Monday that as many as 2,000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon over the past two days to flee the violence in their country.
As international condemnation mounts, the Syrian regime agreed to allow in two prominent international emissaries it had previously rebuffed — former UN secretarygeneral Kofi Annan, the new special envoy to Syria, and UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos. Annan goes to Damascus on Saturday and Amos said she will arrive in the capital Wednesday and leave Friday.
But at the same time, activists said Syrian security forces widened their ferocious campaign to crush opposition in the most restive areas, sending troops into Daraa, the southern town where the protests began a year ago.
Troops also bombarded the town of Rastan in central Syria, not far from Homs, an epicentre of the uprising that has been devastated by more than a month of shelling and gunfire.
Lebanese security officials say more than 10,000 Syrians are believed to be in the country. One official said as many as 3,000 are believed to have crossed in recent days because of violence in Homs, though it is unclear how many have returned to Syria.
Inside Lebanon, many Syrians fear agents from their own country’s security services. Stories have circulated of kidnappings and collaboration between Lebanese and Syrian security forces. Syria controlled Lebanon for decades and Hezbollah, the party that now dominates Lebanon’s government, is closely allied with Syria and Iran.
Turkey says it hosts more than 11,000 Syrians in camps along the border with Syria, including more than 1,000 who crossed in the past month. Jordan has more than 80,000 Syrian refugees, according to the government. Activists have accused Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime of trying to hide its crimes from the world as the military cracks down on an anti-government uprising that has raged for nearly a year. The hardest-hit district of Homs is Baba Amr, an area that had been held by rebels for several months before regime forces drove them out Thursday after nearly four straight weeks of shelling. Although the government promised to let the Red Cross enter Baba Amr immediately, regime forces refused to let the humanitarian teams inside, citing security concerns. Activists say hundreds have been killed in the month-long Homs offensive, and the UN recently put the death toll for a year of violence in Syria at 7,500. However, activists group say the toll has already surpassed 8,000. After seizing Baba Amr from the rebels, regime forces appeared to be turning their attention to other rebellious areas, including Rastan and the northern province of Idlib, which borders Turkey. The shift suggested that the Syrian military is unable to launch large operations simultaneously, even though the security services remain largely strong and loyal. With world pressure at a peak, U.S. Sen. John Mccain called for airstrikes against Syria. He said the U.S. has a moral and strategic obli- gation to force out Assad and his loyalists.
“The only realistic way to do so is with foreign air power,” Mccain said from the Senate floor. “The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centres in Syria, especially in the north, through airstrikes on Assad’s forces.” The Obama administration, which has worked to isolate Assad diplomatically and has called for him to step down, reacted tepidly to Mccain’s call.
A senior Defense Department official said the remarks “could very well exacerbate problems inside the country.”
Nonetheless, administration officials have not ruled anything out. With files from The New York Times