IPT IO N SC R SU B
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2012
Bahrain protesters seek new ‘Freedom Square’
RABIA ALAWAL 19, 1433 AH
Greece caught between protests, austerity demands
No: 15356
Kings upset Thunder 106-101
150 Fils
8Blasts 15 48 rock Aleppo, 28 killed; Homs besieged World powers hamstrung as Syria bleeds
Max 17º Min 09º
‘Masked men’ battle Saudi troops, 1 dies RIYADH: One person was killed and three wounded when security forces exchanged gunfire with “masked men” in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich east, the official SPA news agency reported yesterday. Activists and witnesses said the casualties came when security forces opened fire on a Shiite demonstration in the Qatif district of the kingdom’s Eastern Province. “A security force patrol came under heavy gunfire from masked men while it was carrying out its duties in Al-Shwaika neighborhood in the Qatif district on Thursday,” SPA reported, quoting a police spokesman in the province. Security forces “responded,” prompting “an exchange of fire that left four of the rioters wounded, one of whom died before reaching hospital,” it added. Activists and witnesses said that security forces opened fire when a Shiite procession marking the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed-a celebration forbidden in ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia-turned into a demonstration for reform and the release of Shiite detainees. “Munir Al-Medani, 21, was wounded by a live bullet to his chest,” one activist said, requesting anonymity. “He was taken to hospital where he later died of his wounds.” A number of other protesters were also wounded, the activists and witnesses said. Witnesses said the shooting prompted groups of young protesters to burn tyres and police to set up checkpoints across the district. Medani’s death raises to six the number of protesters killed since demonstrations erupted in the Eastern Province last March against Saudi-led military intervention to help crush Shiite-led prodemocracy protests in neighboring Bahrain. Activists say that Saudi authorities have arrested nearly 500 people since the protests started. Many have been released but dozens remain in custody, among them human rights activist Fadel Al-Munasif and writer Nazir Al-Majid. In January, Saudi authorities published a list of 23 men wanted on suspicion of involvement in the disturbances. Later the same month, the interior ministry announced that security forces had arrested nine people suspected of involvement in the wounding of three policemen in the Eastern Province. Most of Saudi Arabia’s estimated two million Shiites live in the province, where the vast majority of the kingdom’s huge oil reserves lie. They complain of marginalization in the Sunni-dominated kingdom. — AFP
ALEPPO: Covered dead bodies are seen in front of a building at a security compound which was damaged by an explosion, in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria yesterday. — AP AMMAN: At least 28 people were killed in two bomb attacks in Syria’s second city Aleppo yesterday while in besieged Homs, opposition neighborhoods endured another day of bombardment by President Bashar AlAssad’s troops. The Aleppo bombings were the worst violence to hit the country’s commercial hub since the uprising against the Assad family’s 42-year dynastic rule began 11 months ago. Mangled, bloodied bodies and severed limbs lay on the pavement outside the military and security service buildings that were targeted - as shown in live footage on Syrian television, which has consistently portrayed the revolt against Assad as the work of foreign-backed “terrorists”. No one claimed responsibility for the Aleppo bombings but they took place as Assad’s forces grow more ferocious in operations to crush the uprising. Some opposition figures said the government was manipulating the incidents to discredit them. Yesterday saw more unrest across the country, with activists reporting that security
forces opened fire in Latakia, in the town of Dael in Deraa province, and elsewhere to break up demonstrations taking place after weekly Muslim prayers. In the western city of Homs, where a week of bombardments has killed dozens of civilians and drawn condemnation from world leaders, four people were killed in the opposition-held neighborhoods of Baba Amro and Bab Sebaa, the activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Troops also opened fire as worshippers left a mosque in Homs after Friday prayers. Activists in Homs said shelling started up again in the morning and they feared a big push was imminent to storm residential areas of the city that has come to symbolize the plight of those opposing the Assad government. “The carnage in Homs continues and the martyrdom of the Syrian people continues,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. “Not only are we seeing an army that is massacring its own people, but for the Syrian army hospitals and doctors have become systematic targets for repression.”
But the unrelenting violence only highlighted the difficulties that Western and Arab powers faced in trying to resolve the crisis in a country with a well-armed military and a key place in the Middle East’s precarious strategic balance. Bolstered by Russian support, Assad has ignored appeals from the United States, Turkey, Europeans, fellow Arabs and other governments to halt the repression and to step down. Foreign ministers of the Arab League, which suspended a monitoring mission in Syria last month because of the violence, will discuss a proposal to send a joint UN-Arab mission to Syria when they meet in Cairo tomorrow, a League official said. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe will meet his Russian counterpart in Vienna on Thursday to discuss Syria, Valero said. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, added her voice to international calls for Moscow, Syria’s strongest ally and main arms supplier, to support a United Nations resolution demanding Assad halt the crackdown. —Reuters