Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Syrian rebels exit besieged area
Conditions called unbearable; aid workers OK’D to go in
BEIRUT — After a punishing, month-long military siege, Syrian rebels made what they called a “tactical retreat” Thursday from a key district in Homs, saying they were running low on weapons and the humanitarian conditions were unbearable.
Within hours of the rebels’ withdrawal, President Bashar Assad’s regime granted permission for the International Committee of the Red Cross to enter the neighborhood of Baba Amr, which had become a symbol of the resistance.
Human- rights workers have been appealing for access for weeks to deliver food, water and medicine and to help evacuate the wounded from an area that has been sealed off and attacked by the government since early February.
The Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent received a “green light” from the Syrian authorities to enter Baba Amr today “to bring in much-needed assistance including food and medical aid, and to carry out evacuation operations,” Red Cross spokesman Hicham Hassan said in Geneva.
Also Thursday, Syria’s main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, formed a military bureau to help organize the armed resistance and funnel weapons to rebels in a sign of how deeply militarized the conflict has become over the past year.
The uprising began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful protests, but a fierce government crackdown has led many army defectors and others to take up arms and fight back, with more than 7,500 estimated killed. The siege of Baba Amr has been among the deadliest assaults as Syrian forces bombarded the district with shells and snipers fired from rooftops.
Late Thursday, a Syrian official said the army had entered and taken control of the area.
The Local Coordination Committees said there were 45 deaths recorded in Syria on Thursday, 24 of them in Homs.
Hundreds of people were killed and an unknown number wounded in Baba Amr; bloodied victims were forced to seek help in makeshift clinics with dwindling supplies in a frigid winter.
“Assad’s army has destroyed most of the homes in the neighborhood,” said a statement posted online by the Baba Amr rebels’ brigade about the retreat. The rebels said the decision was based on “worsening humanitarian conditions, lack of food and medicine and water, electricity and communication cuts as well as shortages in weapons.”
“We will return, God willing,” the statement said.
The retreat came one day after a Syrian official said the government was planning a major offensive to “cleanse” Baba Amr once and for all, and activists reported troops massing outside the neighborhood.
Two French journalists, Edith Bouvier and William Daniels, have escaped to Lebanon after being trapped in Baba Amr, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said late Thursday.
“I had [Bouvier] on the phone. She is with her colleague, outside Syria,” Sarkozy said during an impromptu news briefing during a European Union summit.
“She has suffered a lot but she will give the details herself,” Sarkozy said.
Bouvier was wounded last week in a government rocket attack on a makeshift media center that killed Americanborn journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik. Bouvier is asking for a European ambassador to accompany any evacuation, said Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition Syrian National Council, at a Paris news conference.
Earlier Thursday, a Syrian activist posted videos online that he said showed the burials Monday of Colvin and Ochlik in Baba Amr. The content of the videos could not be independently confirmed, and the bodies could not be positively identified through the pictures.
The Syrian state news agency reported late Thursday that specialists from the Syrian government had found the bodies of three foreign journalists. It said they had been disinterred and would be transferred to Damascus so they could be identified and returned to their countries.
The report said the bodies were of Colvin, Ochlik and Javier Espinosa of Spain. Syrian government officials could not be reached for further comment. Espinosa’s domestic partner and his employer, El Mundo, said he is in Lebanon.
Homs is Syria’s third-largest city with about 1 million people. Activists estimated that 100,000 people lived in Baba Amr before the revolt, but many have fled, and it is unclear how many are left. The rebels estimate that 4,000 people remain.
Rebels have relocated from some areas but said the resistance in Baba Amr “is still strong,” Ghalioun said.
He also laid out the plans for a military council to organize and unify all armed resistance to Assad’s regime.
The Paris-based leadership of the Syrian National Council said its plan was coordinated with the most potent armed opposition force, the Free Syrian Army, which is made up mainly of army defectors.
A Turkey-based member of the Free Syrian Army confirmed that the council coordinated the move with the rebel fighters.
“The revolution started peacefully and kept up its peaceful nature for months, but the reality today is different and the SNC must shoulder its responsibilities in the face of this new reality,” Ghalioun said, adding that any weapons flowing into the country should go through the council.
Still, he tried to play down the risks of an all-out civil war.
“We want to control the use of weapons so that there won’t be a civil war,” he said. “Our aim is to help avoid civil war.”
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been discussing military aid, but the U.S. and others have not advocated arming the rebels, in part out of fear it would create an even more bloody and prolonged conflict. Syria has a complex web of allegiances in the region that extend to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, raising fears of wider violence.
“It’s not clear to us that arming people right now will either save lives or lead to the demise of the Assad regime,” the top U.S. diplomat for the Mideast, Jeffrey Feltman, told a Senate committee Thursday.
Ghalioun said the military council will be made up of military and civilian experts in charge of following up with the various armed factions in Syria and organizing its ranks and unify it under one central leadership.
The Syrian National Council has called for arming rebels in the past, but this was the first time it sought to organize the fighters under one umbrella. It’s not clear how successful it will be in unifying the various anti-assad forces. The opposition’s main problem in the past year has been its inability to coalesce behind a single leader or ideology beyond toppling the regime.
International pressure on the regime has been growing more intense daily. The United Kingdom and Switzerland closed their embassies in Damascus over worsening security. The U.S. closed its embassy in February.
Also Thursday, the U.N.’S top human-rights body voted to condemn Syria for its “widespread and systematic violations” against civilians.
The council’s vote carries no legal weight, but diplomats consider it a strong moral signal that may encourage a similar resolution in the powerful U.N. Security Council.
Also Thursday, the U.N. Security Council called on Syrian authorities to grant U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos “unhindered access.”
The press statement, obtained Thursday, was the first one on Syria approved by the council in seven months. It is significant because it requires agreement of all 15 council members, including Russia and China, who have vetoed two resolutions condemning Assad’s crackdown and calling for him to step down.
Council diplomats said Russia, Syria’s closest ally, had urged Assad’s government to approve the Amos visit.
The last statement approved by the Security Council was a stronger presidential statement Aug. 3. Presidential statements become part of the council’s record but, unlike resolutions, are not legally binding.
On Wednesday, Amos said Syria had not yet agreed to allow her into the country. But Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, denied that, saying Thursday that she wanted to visit “on a date not suitable for us.”
“The Syrian side is ready to continue consultation with Amos on a date that is appropriate for both sides ... for Amos to start her visit to Damascus,” the SANA statement said.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Amos has been “extremely flexible ... and she’s still ready to go at a moment’s notice.”
Activists put the total death toll since March 2011 at more than 8,000, mostly civilians. Information for this article was contributed by Zeina Karam, Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Edith M. Lederer, Bradley Klapper, Ben Hubbard, Frank Jordans and David Stringer of The Associated Press.