AMMAN, Sept 29, (Agencies): Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hurled rocks, eggs and tomatoes at US Ambassador Robert Ford’s convoy as he visited an opposition figure in Damascus on Thursday and Syria accused Washington of inciting violence and meddling in its affairs.
Washington condemned the attack, calling it an attempt to intimidate a diplomat witnessing the “brutality” of the government.
“These kinds of assaults against diplomatic personnel, including our ambassador, are unwarranted and unjustifiable,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told a daily news briefing.
Assad’s crackdown on six months of pro-democracy protests has envenomed relations with the United States, which has imposed fresh sanctions and rallied world pressure on Syria.
President Barack Obama took office in 2009 pledging to engage in dialogue with Damascus and named Ford as ambassador.
“Two embassy cars were damaged,” said a witness, who asked not to be identified, adding that the demonstrators were chanting “Abu Hafez (father of Hafez)”, a nickname for Assad.
The diplomats were visiting Hassan Abdelazim, a centrist politician who has demanded an end to Assad’s crackdown as a condition for any opposition dialogue with the president.
Ford was already inside the building when about 200 Assad supporters attacked the embassy vehicles with large rocks and street signs with concrete bases. Embassy staff inside the vehicles were not harmed. Police later extracted the convoy.
The Syrian government said that once they were alerted to the confrontation, authorities “took all necessary procedures to protect the ambassador and his team and secure their return to their place of work.” There was no immediate comment from the State Department in Washington.
Soon after the incident, the Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement accusing the United States of “encouraging armed groups to practice violence against the Syrian Arab Army”.
The attack was the second on US diplomats since protests erupted in March. Assad supporters assaulted the US embassy in July after Ford visited the flashpoint city of Hama, winning cheers from protesters who later faced a tank-led crackdown.
Ford, who has angered Syria’s rulers by cultivating links with the grassroots opposition, has also visited a protest hotspot in the southern province of Deraa, ignoring a new ban on Western diplomats travelling outside the Damascus area.
Two weeks ago he and several other Western envoys attended the wake of a prominent activist.
Ford arrived in Damascus in January, filling a diplomatic vacuum since Washington withdrew his predecessor in 2005. Obama had hoped the gesture would help convince Assad to reconsider his alliance with Iran and with Islamist militant groups.
Western powers are pushing for a United Nations resolution condemning Syria, although opposition from Russia and China means this is unlikely to impose immediate sanctions.
“The UN Security Council cannot stay quiet any longer facing the daily crimes being committed against the population by the Syrian regime,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. “We want to warn the Syrian regime. We want it stop the terror and repression.”
Haitham al-Maleh, a Syrian opposition leader who is visiting France and meeting French government officials, said that during a stop in Geneva this week he had urged the UN Human Rights Council to prepare a file on Assad and his aides for a possible prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
“How can the international community continue to have a connection with this regime? The regime is using all types of weapons and if the international community continues to wait, you won’t find anybody left but the children,” the veteran human rights lawyer told reporters in Paris.
The United Nations says Assad’s crackdown has killed at least 2,700 Syrians, including more than 100 children. Syrian authorities blame the violence on “armed terrorist gangs”, which they say have killed 700 members of the security forces.
Maleh put the death toll at 5,250, saying 5,000 people had disappeared, more than 100,000 had been arrested and 20,000 had fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. He called for UN military protection zones for civilians to be set up on the borders.
France’s human rights ambassador Francois Zimeray said his country was committed to bringing those responsible for abuses in Syria to justice. “It may take years, but the perpetrators will be judged,” he told reporters.
Armed resistance has emerged in Syria after months of mostly peaceful protests, with battles in the last few days in the town of Rastan, 180 kms (112 miles) north of Damascus.
Army deserters backed by armed villagers were holding out against tank fire, but Rastan was running short of supplies, activists and residents said.
“The more they (Assad loyalists) take casualties, the more they fire at civilians,” said one resident, who gave his name as Sami, adding that defenders were holding up the tanks with boobytraps and rocket-propelled grenades.
“The wounded are not being taken to hospital because it is at the front line. Makeshift clinics in homes are running out of medical supplies,” he added.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission, an umbrella for several activist groups, said the army assault had killed 41 people in Rastan in the last 72 hours, but that the figure was an estimate, with communications cut with the besieged town
Maleh said he opposed taking up weapons against the security forces, but said it was now inevitable, estimating that out of Syria’s 300,000-strong army, only the 60,000 men in a brigade commanded by Assad’s brother were fully loyal.
Bahrain
Bahrain jailed 20 doctors on Thursday for between five and 15 years on theft and other charges, the state news agency said, in what critics claimed was reprisal for treating protesters during unrest in the Gulf kingdom this year.
A security court also sentenced a man to death for killing a policeman by driving his car over him several times and joining illegal gatherings for “terrorist goals”, the BNA news agency said. Another man was handed a life term for his involvement.
The doctors, who denied the charges, were among dozens of medical staff arrested during protests led by the island’s Shi’ite majority demanding an end to sectarian discrimination and a greater say in government.
Bahrain’s Sunni Muslim rulers quashed the protests in March, with the help of troops from fellow Sunni neighbours Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. At least 30 people were killed, hundreds wounded and more than 1,000 detained — mostly Shi’ites — in the crackdown.
The doctors were charged with stealing medicine, stockpiling weapons and occupying a hospital during the unrest and in addition were jailed for forcibly occupying a hospital, spreading lies and false news, withholding treatment, inciting hatred of Bahrain’s rulers and calling for their overthrow.
“We were shocked by the verdicts because we were expecting the doctors would be proved innocent of the crime of occupying the Salmaniya medical complex,” defence lawyer Mohsen al-Alawi said, adding the hearing had lasted no more than 10 minutes.
The doctors say the charges were invented by the authorities to punish medical staff for treating people who took part in anti-government protests.
“Those doctors who have been found guilty were charged with abusing the hospital for political purposes. Nobody is above the law,” a spokesman for the government’s Information Affairs Authority (IAA) said.
Ten of the doctors, including senior physician Ali Al-Ekri, were given 15-year terms, two were sentenced to 10 years in prison and the rest to five.
“After today’s verdict and those issued yesterday we feel pessimism,” Alawi said, adding they would appeal against the decision.
On Wednesday a military court upheld life sentences against Shi’ite opposition leaders for organising protests in a trial described as a “sham” by Amnesty International, which also called the latest proceedings a “travesty of justice”.
The British government voiced concern over the sentences.
“These sentences appear disproportionate to the charges brought,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday.
“These are worrying developments that could undermine the Bahraini government’s moves towards dialogue and the reform needed for long-term stability in Bahrain.”
A senior Bahraini official said the government was still prepared to hold more talks with all opposition parties on political reforms to try to end protests that threaten to hold up the economy and scratch its business-friendly image.
Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, a senior adviser at the IAA, also said Bahrain had begun receiving some of the $10 billion in economic aid promised by fellow Gulf Arab nations.
“Everything is open for discussion except regime change. That doesn’t mean it has to be discussed today (but) the king said reforms are not going to stop,” he said. “Other issues can be brought to the table — when and how, I’m not sure.”
Libya
Libya’s new rulers on Thursday stepped up the hunt for Muammar Gaddafi’s inner circle, seeking the arrest of one of his sons, Saadi, and announcing the capture of his spokesman Mussa Ibrahim.
They also said another Gaddafi son, Mutassim, was in the deposed despot’s birthplace of Sirte, where old regime loyalists fought pitched battles with combatants loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council.
“Misrata fighters contacted us and gave us the information that Mussa Ibrahim has been captured,” said Mustafa bin Dardef, of the National Transitional Council’s Zintan Brigade.
Another commander, Mohammed al-Marimi, said: “Mussa Ibrahim was captured while driving outside Sirte by fighters from Misrata.”
He said there were reports that Ibrahim was dressed as a woman, but could not immediately confirm that.
Libya’s Al-Hurra Misrata television also said Ibrahim had been caught outside Sirte and that he had been in a car and veiled, adding that it would soon broadcast footage of his capture.
Ibrahim had been the public voice of the Gaddafi regime until NTC fighters overran Tripoli on August 23.
Despite fleeing the capital along with the deposed despot, he has continued to issue statements through Syrian-based Arrai television from an unknown location, although not as frequently.
On Friday, Ibrahim had appealed for resolve against “agents and traitors,” denounced what he called “genocide” by NATO and its “Libyan agents,” and criticised the world community for “inaction.”
Global police agency Interpol said, meanwhile, the NTC had requested an arrest notice against Saadi, who is believed to be in Niger.
The Libyan authorities, it said in a statement, wanted him “for allegedly misappropriating properties through force and armed intimidation when he headed the Libyan Football Federation.”
Saadi, 38, was last seen in Niger and the red notice calls particularly on countries in the region to help locate and arrest him “with a view to returning him to Libya where an arrest warrant for him has been issued,” Interpol said.
However, Niger’s Prime Minister Brigi Rafini said later Thursday that his country has no plans to send Saadi home to face justice.
“Saadi Gaddafi is in safety, in security in Niamey, in the hands of the Niger government. There’s no question of him being extradited to Libya for the moment,” Rafini told AFP in France.
“We need to be sure he will be allowed a fair defence,” he said. “Are those conditions in place today? No.”
While the fugitive Gaddafi’s whereabouts remain unknown, Libya’s defence ministry spokesman Ahmed Bani said in Tripoli that his most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, was in Bani Walid and also said that Mutassim was in Sirte.
An NTC field commander in Sirte also told AFP that Mutassim was in the Mediterranean city, which lies some 360 kilometres (225 miles) east of Tripoli.
“Mutassim is inside and he is commanding his forces. They are using heavy guns as well as snipers which is making it difficult for us.”
Along with his father and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, Seif is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
On the battlefront in Sirte, meanwhile, anti-Gaddafi fighters returned to the fray after being forced to retreat during ferocious fighting on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean city that had raged through the night.
An AFP correspondent said the two sides shelled each other and trading heavy machinegun fire around the port as well as near the Mahari Hotel.
The firefight intensified, with NTC tanks firing barrage after barrage of shells towards loyalist positions and pro-Gaddafi snipers firing on the NTC fighters from rooftops, the reporter said.
NTC military chiefs said their forces remained in control of the hotel and the port, which they overran on Tuesday, but that the situation was fluid.
“The battle is fierce,” said an NTC field commander who asked not to be identified.
Senators
Four Republican senators traveled to Libya on Thursday to meet with the nation’s new rulers, the highest-profile American delegation to visit the country since the ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi.
The four lawmakers — John McCain of Arizona, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida — met with the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and other high-ranking officials of the group that is now governing Libya after revolutionary forces ousted Gaddafi from power.
The senators toured Martyrs’ Square and planned a news conference later Thursday. They traveled from Malta, where they met with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on Wednesday.
Yemen
Two tribesmen were killed in fierce clashes on Thursday in Yemen’s capital between troops loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh and rival tribesmen and military forces that have defected.
In Geneva, meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council slammed violations in Yemen but did not say if they were committed by troops loyal to Saleh or rival tribesmen and renegade troops.
Thursday’s firefights erupted in northern Sanaa between the elite Republican Guard, led by Saleh’s son Ahmed, and soldiers of the First Armoured Division which is headed by dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and provides protection for anti-Saleh protesters, witnesses said.
Guard forces based in Amran Street were locked in a heavy exchange of fire with dissident troops deployed in Thalathine Street near Change Square where protesters demanding Saleh’s ouster have camped for months, witnesses said.
They said heavy shelling believed to be coming from Republican Guard bases was targeting a residential neighbourhood near state television, with residents pleading for help and to be spared.
Loyalist troops had earlier clashed with Ahmar tribesmen in Al-Hasaba, in renewed fighting with the influential tribe whose leader Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar has sided with the protesters.
Two tribesmen were killed and five others wounded, tribal sources said.
The gunbattle erupted a day after other tribesmen fighting the Republican Guard north of Sanaa shot down a fighter jet.
The military held opposition leaders responsible for downing the Sukhoi SU-22 near Arhab, 40 kilometres (26 miles) north of Sanaa, a region that is the northern gateway into the capital.
It also follows a large protest on Wednesday when hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated near Change Square, demanding Saleh’s ouster and trial.
Youth groups had said on Wednesday they planned to march from Change Square in north Sanaa to the south of the city where Saleh’s residence is located.
“There will be an escalation during the coming two days. The youths will march... to Hedda Street, where the president’s residence is,” Walid al-Amari, a leading activist from the youth revolution committee, told AFP.
He said protesters want a peaceful march and have asked the leadership of the defected First Armoured Division not to provide any armed protection that could provoke Saleh loyalists.
But the groups appear to have backed off, as demonstrations on Thursday were confined to areas controlled by Ahmar’s first division.
Tens of thousands of people marched from Change Square through neighbouring streets before returning to their camp.
“Peaceful. Peaceful. No to civil war,” they chanted, an AFP correspondent reported.
Egypt
Political parties from across Egypt’s political spectrum threatened to boycott elections scheduled to start in November unless the country’s military rulers amend the election law.
Parties made their boycott threat in a joint statement late on Wednesday as some activists prepared a protest in Cairo for Friday. They hope it will attract thousands of people unhappy with the generals who took over from veteran president Hosni Mubarak when he was forced out by popular protests in February.
But some Islamists, including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, said they would not protest, giving the army time to respond. The army urged protesters to keep order.
The United States also put pressure on the interim government, saying it hoped Egypt’s emergency law — widely seen as a tool of repression under Mubarak — would be scrapped sooner than the military foresees next year.
About 60 political parties and groups, including the political wing of the Brotherhood, have set a deadline of Sunday for the military council to meet their demands. These include approving a law that would effectively prevent many of those who supported Mubarak while he was in power from running for office.
Without it, the parties said they would not take part in the elections: “We will boycott if they have not responded positively to our demands by Sunday,” Sayyid al-Badawi, the head of the Wafd party, told Reuters.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party is now the largest and best organised party in Egypt, since Mubarak’s National Democratic Party was dissolved by court order.
The military council said on Tuesday that parliamentary elections would start in stages from Nov 28, and invited candidates to start registering for the poll from Oct 12.
Under rules approved by the council, which took over after Mubarak’s overthrow, party lists may compete for two thirds of seats in parliament, to be allocated regionally by proportional representation, while the rest are constituency seats reserved for unaffiliated individual candidates.
Badawi said all the parties had agreed to the demands in the statement to allow parties to field candidates on both regional party lists and for individual constituency seats.
Egypt’s military rulers said last week that the emergency law would remain in place until June next year, in keeping with a timeline set by Mubarak while he was trying to hold on to power in the face of mass demonstrations.
However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a faster end to the law, which was reactivated two days after a Sept 9 attack by protesters on the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
“We hope to see the law lifted sooner than that because we think that is an important step on the way to the rule of law and to the kind of system of checks and balances that are important in protecting the rights of the Egyptian people,” she said in Washington on Wednesday.
“We want to see this as soon as possible,” she told a news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr.
Egyptian parties want the military council to activate a “Treason Law” issued in the 1950s to fight political corruption and abuse of office. In August, the government revived an amended version of the law, state news agency MENA reported. It was sent to the military council but has yet to be approved.