Violent deaths
Senior prosecutor and judge killed in northwest Syria
BEIRUT: Gunmen assassinated a senior prosecutor and a judge in a restive province in northwest Syria, the country’s state news agency said, while activists reported that security forces shelled rebel-held areas in the besieged city of Homs.
Sana news agency said gunmen opened fire in the morning on a car carrying Idlib provincial state prosecutor Nidal Ghazal and judge Mohammed Ziadeh. The agency said the two were killed instantly along with their driver.
Syrian rebels controlled parts of Idlib province, which borders Turkey. It had been one of the regions hardest hit by a government crackdown on an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Sana said the prosecutor’s assassination came a day after gunmen shot dead Jamal al-bish, member of the city council of the nearby northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest. It said he was killed outside the city, a centre of support for Assad.
The Syrian government blames armed “terrorists” acting out a foreign conspiracy to destabilise the country.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group said shelling continued yesterday of the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr, which has been subjected to government forces attacks since Feb 4.
The group also said troops stormed the eastern town of Sukhna searching for fugitive members of the opposition, and that one woman was shot dead during the raids.
On Saturday, Syrian security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at thousands of people marching in a funeral procession that turned into one of the largest protests in the capital Damascus since the 11-month uprising began.
The violence broke out during a visit by a Chinese envoy, who said his country would back a solution to the crisis based on proposals already put forward by the Arab League – even though Beijing was unlikely to support the regional bloc’s call for Assad to step aside.
During his visit on Saturday to Syria, Chinese Vice-foreign Minister Zhai Jun urged dialogue and called on all parties to stop the violence.