Tank Raid in Damascus Despite UN Mission
Syrian tanks rumbled into a rebel bastion in Damascus as UN observers toured hotspots in the country.
Activists say the Sunday morning raid was launched to crush president Bashar al-Assad’s opponents in Douma, an outlying suburb of the capital.
A video posted online showed columns of smoke billowing into the sky. Heavy gunfire could be heard in the background.
“Regime forces enter Douma each day, but today’s assault was the largest,” Damascus revolutionary council member Mohammed Saeed told AFP.
He said it was “in retaliation for huge anti-regime protests there and because it’s a centre of dissent in the Damascus countryside”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights two civilians and four soldiers were killed in Douma.
The violence comes a day after the UN Security Council voted unanimously to dispatch 300 unarmed observers to Syria to monitor a ceasefire that went into effect on April 12.
UN envoy Kofi Annan has called the vote a “pivotal moment for the stabilisation of the country”.
An advance team of UN observers toured embattled areas on Sunday, laying the ground for the new mission.
On Saturday, their visit to Homs included a stop in Baba Amr, a rebel hideout battered by a month-long army bombardment that killed hundreds, according to monitors, before it was retaken on March 1.
A YouTube video showed them meeting with activists who begged them to stay.
“Today is the first day since two months, exactly since 5 February… in Homs without shelling… without killing, without fire,” one unidentified activist said in the footage.
“Because of that, we want you to stay. Please stay. This is what we want.