Syria ‘targeting Homs scientists’
A nuclear physics professor has been killed outside his home in the Syrian city of Homs, the latest in a series of deaths of scientists in the city.
One activist said government snipers were to blame for Ous Abdel Karim Khalil’s death, but another said it could have been a revenge attack.
His killing was reported as fighting continued between security forces and deserters in the town of Rastan.
Meanwhile, Russia attacked a watered-down plan for a UN resolution on Syria.
European countries proposing the resolution had dropped demands for immediate sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
The draft, proposed by the UK, France, Germany and Portugal and backed by the US, threatens sanctions only if the repression of protests does not end, and was aimed at winning the support of Russia and China.
But Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the proposed resolution would encourage violence, and was “a continuation of the Libya policy of regime change”.
Inside Syria, security forces have been pressing on with efforts to quash protests that began six months ago.
In Rastan, a strategically important town that has seen frequent protests, soldiers who have deserted were reported to be engaged in heavy fighting with security forces for a second day.
“They have got a foothold in the southern part of Rastan, but the Free Syrian Army is fighting back and has destroyed three armoured vehicles,” one resident told Reuters news agency, referring to the deserters…