Tensions high as clashes kill 30 in Syria
Revolt against President Assad’s regime goes out of control
The discovery of three mutilated corpses set off a wave of sectarian bloodshed that killed up to 30 people over the weekend in central Syria, a dangerous escalation in violence stemming from the country’s four-month-old uprising, activists said on Monday.
The killings were a troubling sign that the revolt against President Bashar Assad’s regime is enflaming tensions among Syria’s volatile mix of religions. Most Syrians are Sunni Muslim, but Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, the director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the violence began on Saturday after the dismembered bodies of three Alawite government supporters were dumped in Homs, a city that has become a focal point of the uprising.
The next day, six bodies from various sects were found dumped in the city, apparently in revenge attacks, a Homs resident said. Pro-government thugs called shabiha then went on a rampage, the resident said, opening fire in predominantly Sunni neighbourhoods in Homs.
Up to 40 shops were vandalised or burned, he said.
Catastrophe
“It was a catastrophe, the situation could easily have slipped out of control,” he said, adding the situation calmed down Monday but tensions were high.
Another activist said the dead included a 27-year-old mother of three, who was shot as she left her home, and a man in his 50s who was struck by a bullet on his balcony.
“I was at the man’s funeral on Sunday, all he did was go out on his balcony,” he said, adding that civilians have started setting up roadblocks to protect their neighbourhoods.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a Syrian activist in Homs put the death toll at 30 and said they have the names of the victims.
But another activist in Homs said he’s not certain if the death toll was as high as 30. He suggested the real number may be about half.
Human rights group say more than 1,600 people, most of them unarmed civilians, have been killed in Assad’s crackdown on protesters calling for regime change. The government disputes that toll and blames the unrest on gunmen and religious extremists looking to stir up sectarian strife.
