Government sources blame “armed gangs”. Pro-democracy opposition groups say officers were executed for refusing to fire on demonstrators. Reports speak of demonstrations in many cities, including the Palestinian refugee camp in Yarmouk. Turkey calls on Assad to follow the path of reform.

Beirut (AsiaNews) – Syria is turning into a place of protests, crackdown, killings, disinformation and promises. What happened in Jisr Ash Shughur, a town in the country’s north-west on the border with Turkey, is a case in point. Syria’s official news agency SANA and state TV said, “armed gangs” killed about 120 Syrian soldiers and police officers, 80 of them at police headquarters. The latter had been sent to “rescue citizens being terrorised”.

“We will deal strongly and decisively, and according to the law, and we will not be silent about any armed attack that targets the security of the state and its citizens,” Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim al-Shaar said.

The opposition has disputed the official version. Anti-government activists claim that when police mutinied, refusing to fire on demonstrators, they were executed at a local security forces building. Instead, the regime’s version is an excuse to justify the imminent arrival of tanks, poised to enter the town to punish residents for protesting peacefully on Friday. On Saturday, a security operation had already left at least 37 residents dead.

Dissident groups are reporting online that security forces have killed protesters in Deir Ezzor, Talbisseh, Homs, Idlib, Jabla and Hama, as well as areas of the capital.

Gunfire was also heard at the Palestinian refugee camp in Yarmouk, south of the capital, during the funerals for nine people killed in a protest on the border with Israel. Crowds are said to have shouted slogans against the Syrian regime and Damascus-based Palestinian leaders.

Six Syrian human rights groups yesterday called on the Syrian government to end the cycle of violence and murders; they also urged the Security Council to look into events in their country. A delegation representing human rights groups also travelled to The Hague to demand action by the International Court of Justice.

Beside blaming “armed gangs” backed by Muslim extremists and foreign agitators, the government has also pledged political liberalisation and an end to the country’s one-party state under the Baath party and the Assad clan.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has again urged Syrian leaders to start reforms. He has found an unexpected ally in Walid Jumblatt, head of the Progressive Socialist Party and a member of Lebanon’s pro-Syrian majority, who has called on Assad to carry out reforms and stop using force against opposition groups. (PD)

• syria
• crisis
• crackdown
• jisr
• ash
• shughur
• turkey
• lebanon
• palestinians