KUWAIT CITY, Feb 4:  Syrian expats stormed their embassy in Kuwait at dawn on Saturday, damaging its property and lowering the Syrian flag. As a result, a number of Syrians as well as Kuwaitis partaking in the incident were arrested.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) stated that officials assigned to guard the embassy attempted to stop the break-in, however a number of security personnel were injured in the process. The MoI assured, however, that the Syrian Ambassador and the embassy’s staff were not harmed.

The Interior Ministry warned that any violations against embassies in Kuwait would be considered a breach of international law and norms. It added that investigations would continue to apprehended all those participating in the incident.

A number of MPs condemned the attack on the Syrian embassy while others touched upon the Syrian people’s plight under the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei called on the Kuwaiti government to expel the Syrian Ambassador and release those who’ve stormed the embassy, stating that it must align with the Syrian people as “the regime has only weeks to remain.” He added that the break-in was the result of horrific news that massacres are occurring in Syria. Al-Tabtabaei also called on the GCC to end relations with the Syrian regime.

MP Adel Al-Damkhi also condemned the Syrian massacres, in which more than 300 civilians including women and children have perished. Although he criticized non-peaceful protest at the Syrian embassy, he called on the Interior Ministry to release the citizens and Syrian protestors.

Meanwhile Shiite MP Abdulhamid Dashti strongly condemned the storming of the embassy as it violates the states laws and harms relations with Syria. He said the break-in was organized as the same events have occurred in other Arab and western countries. “We’ve warned on more than one occasion of the dangers of the soft invasion that seeks to harm state institutions,” he stated. Dashti called on the government to apply the full weight of the law on the violators to ensure national safety.

Earlier, the independent Kuwait Association for Human Rights said on its Twitter page that at least two protesters were injured in the scramble to flee after embassy guards fired gunshots into the air.
About 1,000 Kuwaitis later demonstrated outside the Syrian embassy, south of Kuwait City, to protest against the bloodshed in Syria and to demand the expulsion of the country’s ambassador.

“Long live Syria, down with (Syrian President) Bashar Al-Assad,” chanted the crowd, including a number of newly-elected MPs, as elite special forces cordoned off the embassy.

The interior ministry said the Syrian ambassador and other embassy staff escaped unharmed.
Kuwaiti activist Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi was among those arrested, his friends said in messages posted on Twitter.

The foreign ministry strongly condemned the incident, saying it “breaches the country’s laws and international charters.”

Kuwaiti MP Ali Salem Al-Diqbassi who heads the Arab parliament called on Saturday for the expulsion of Syrian envoys from Arab states, as Tunisia said it will expel Syria’s ambassador and stop recognising the regime in Damascus.

Meanwhile, Syrian demonstrators ransacked their country’s embassy in Cairo and broke into the missions in London and Kuwait, part of protests around the world against the worst bloodshed of the 11 month uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad.

The Cairo crowd smashed furniture and equipment and set fire to parts of the embassy building overnight.

In London, about 150 people hurled stones at the Syrian embassy, smashing windows and shouting slogans. Five men were arrested after breaking into the building and another was held for assaulting police, London police said.

Rallies also broke out outside Syrian embassies in Germany, the United States and Greece after human rights activists reported more than 200 people were killed in shelling by government forces in the city of Homs.

The gate of the embassy in central Cairo was broken and furniture and computers were smashed on the second floor of the building. Parts of the first floor were burned.

Meanwhile in Athens, 12 Syrians and one Iraqi were detained for throwing stones at a guard post outside the Syrian embassy, a Greek police official said. They were expected to be released later in the day.

Massacre

In Damascus, Syrian troops killed more than 230 people in shelling of the city of Homs in a “horrific massacre” Saturday, activists said.
While Western diplomats said the vote would go ahead, Russia announced that Foreign Minister Sergei

Lavrov would travel to Damascus on Tuesday to press Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad for a political solution.
The Damascus government denied involvement in the pre-dawn assault that sparked international condemnation, blaming groups trying to incite unrest.
US President Barack Obama denounced the “unspeakable assault” on Homs and demanded that Assad “step aside.”
“Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately,” Obama said in a statement.
France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, condemned this “further step in savagery,” calling it a “crime against humanity.”
In an apparent allusion to Moscow, it said anyone hindering condemnation of the violence and steps toward a political solution would “bear a heavy responsibility in history.”
The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) said “Assad forces randomly bombed residential areas in Homs, including Khalidiyeh and Qusur, which resulted in at least 260 civilians killed and hundreds of wounded, including men, women, and children.”
The “Assad regime committed one of the most horrific massacres since the beginning of the uprising in Syria” that has cost more than 6,000 lives since it broke out in mid-March, it said.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP at least 237 were killed, including 99 women and children, and several hundred others wounded.
Assad’s forces also “bombed” the northern town of Jisr al-Shughur near the Turkish border, and suburbs of Damascus, the Britain-based Observatory said.
Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya television channels showed dozens of bodies and scenes of chaos, as Tweets claiming to be from residents said Homs was “bleeding” under the bombardment.
A medical student told Al-Jazeera the local hospital was struggling to cope.
“There is a lack of blood, a lack of oxygen... There is danger in the streets,” he said. “We are overwhelmed. We have opened the mosque next door” to the wounded.
AFP was not able to verify the authenticity of videos or of opposition and resident accounts because of restrictions on reporting in Syria.
The government denied its army had shelled the flashpoint city in central city and accused television stations of “inciting” violence, the official SANA news agency said.
“The civilians shown by satellite television stations are citizens who were kidnapped and killed by armed gunmen” it said, accusing rebel forces of “wanting to use that information to (pressure) the Security Council.”
Elsewhere on Saturday, the civilian death toll rose to 21, the Observatory said, including 12 people killed when security forces opened fired on a funeral procession in Daraya, outside Damascus, the Observatory’s Abdel Rahman said.
Vetoed
Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Syrian government’s deadly crackdown on protests for the second time.
Thirteen countries voted for the resolution proposed by European and Arab nations to give strong backing to the Arab League’s plan to end President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown. But Russia and China made a repeat of their rare double veto carried out on Oct 5 on an earlier condemnation.
US ambassador Susan Rice called the block “shameful.” She said the veto showed how Russia and China aimed to “sell out the Syrian people and shield a craven tyrant.”
Arab nations also condemned the move.
“I would like to express our great regret and disappointment” at the veto, said Morocco’s UN ambassador Mohammed Loulichki, whose country is the Arab member of the 15-member council and played a key role in the drawing up the resolution.
Western ambassadors highlighted the concessions made to Russia in weeks of negotiations on the draft text. References to sanctions by the Arab League and calls for Assad to stand down were taken out.
Britain is “appalled,” said its UN envoy Mark Lyall Grant.
“It is a sad for this council, a sad day for Syrians, a sad day for the friends of democracy,” said France’s UN ambassador Gerard Araud.
“History has now compounded our shame since today is the anniversary of the Hama massacre and the day after another heinous massacre in Homs,” added Araud, referring to a 1982 massacre in the Syrian city of Hama that killed tens of thousands. Assad’s father, Hafez, ruled the country at the time.
“Father and son are killing; it would seem to be hereditary in Damascus,” he said.
The Security Council has now only agreed one statement, which has a lower standing, on the Syrian crisis since protests erupted in March last year.
India and South Africa which abstained in the October vote, backed the latest resolution. Pakistan was also among council members to back the resolution.
In Beijing, China said Sunday that further consultation was needed on a draft resolution for Syria after the country joined Russia in vetoing a proposal put before the UN Security Council, Xinhua reported.
The official news agency quoted Li Baodong, the Chinese representative to the UN, as saying: “To push through a vote when parties are still seriously divided over the issue will not help maintain the unity and authority of the Security Council, or help resolve the issue.”
Arab nations also condemned the move.
But Li said that nations had failed to take account of “reasonable” revision proposals suggested by Russia.
“China supports the revision proposals raised by Russia, and has taken note that Russian Foreign Minister (Sergei Lavrov) will visit Syria next week,” he said.
“The request for continued consultation on the draft by some council members is reasonable.
“It is regrettable that these reasonable concerns are not taken into account,” Li added.
In Munich, Germany, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned her Russian counterpart on Saturday that Syria risks plunging towards civil war if Moscow failed to back UN moves to stop the bloodshed.
Clinton’s remarks came just as Russia and China Saturday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the deadly crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad’s government on protests for the second time.
“What more do we need to know to act decisively in the Security Council?” Clinton asked after she held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
She talked of a “living nightmare” playing out in the city of Homs where more than 200 people were reported killed.
In a swipe at Russia and China, Clinton, recalling a stance she had taken last week, said “to block this resolution is to bear responsibility for the horrors that are occurring on the ground in Syria.”
The chief US diplomat said she had tried to bridge differences over the UN resolution during a 45-minute meeting with Lavrov.
Offering to be constructive, “I thought there might be some ways to bridge even at the last moment a few of the concerns that the Rusians had,” she said. “That has not been possible.”
She said Lavrov had asked her what the “end game” was in a resolution he felt failed to deal equally with armed groups fighting the Assad regime.
“Well, the endgame, in the absence of us acting together as the international community, I fear is civil war,” Clinton said.
“The potential endgames, if we are serious about putting this kind of international pressure on the Assad regime ... is the possibility of beginning a transition similar to what we’ve seen now beginning in Yemen,” she said.
As every day passes without international action, the risk of civil conflict grows in Syria, she warned.
“The Syrian people have asked the Security Council to act. The Arab League has asked the Security Council to act. We should act now,” she said.
The head of the Arab Parliament, a committee of parliamentarians from Arab League states, called on Saturday for Arab countries to expel Syria’s ambassadors and sever diplomatic relations over President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on protests.
“(Arab states) should expel Syrian ambassadors and sever diplomatic relations and economic dealings (with Syria) until the regime complies with the demands of the Syrian people,” Ali al-Salem al-Dekbas, head of the 88-member committee, said in a statement.
Arab states have turned decisively against Assad in recent months over a crackdown on opponents of Assad that the United Nations says has killed at least 5,000 people in 11 months. Assad’s government says it is fighting foreign-backed insurgents, and most deaths have been among its troops.
Tunisia started a procedure on Saturday for withdrawing its recognition of Assad’s government.
Dekbas said Arab states should confront the Russian delegate to the United Nations, whose delay in taking action “allows for a continuation of ... killing of the Syrian people.”
He condemned what he said was “the international community standing and watching” violence in Syria, which he described as “crimes against humanity.”
Meanwhile, Russia and China’s veto Saturday of a UN resolution on the bloodshed in Syria is a “shockingly callous betrayal” of the Syrian people, Amnesty International said.
Moscow and Beijing have acted in a “completely irresponsible” way, the London-based human rights group added.
“The decision by Russia and China ... is a shockingly callous betrayal of the people of Syria,” Amnesty said.
The group’s secretary-general Salil Shetty added: “This is a completely irresponsible use of the veto.
“It is staggering that they have blocked the passage of what was already a very weak draft resolution.
“After a night in which the whole world watched the people of Homs suffering, the actions of these members are particularly shocking.”