The newly appointed head of the United Nations observer mission in Syria has called on President Bashar al-Assad's troops and the opposition to prevent fighting and permit a tenuous cease-fire to take hold.
Major General Robert Mood arrived within the capital, Damascus, on Sunday to guide an advance team of 30 unarmed U.N. observers tasked with monitoring an April 12 truce that was stricken by continued fighting.
The Norwegian general appealed for a "cessation of all armed violence" but said U.N. monitors "cannot solve the entire problems" in Syria, soliciting for cooperation from forces loyal to Mr. Assad in addition to rebels trying to end his rule.
Even as he spoke Sunday, activists reported as a minimum 25 people killed in violence through the country, including 14 civilians shot dead by troops within the village of Hamadi Omar in central Hama province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group tracking the conflict, said other fatalities included two people killed by government snipers in Homs, and 3 soldiers who died in clashes with army defectors.
Also Sunday, an Islamist group calling itself the "al-Nusra Front" claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed in any case nine people in Damascus on Friday.
The latest casualty figures in addition to the claim for the attack Friday couldn't be independently confirmed.
Al-Nusra named the bomber as Abu Omar al-Shami and said he detonated his explosives amidst 150 Syrian security forces who were gathered outside the Zain al-Abideen mosque within the capital's Midan district.
The group has also claimed responsibility for a January suicide bombing in Midan and other bombings in Damascus and inside the northern city of Aleppo.
Since the truce took effect, forces loyal to Mr. Assad have continued assaulting opposition hubs, while rebel fighters have repeatedly ambushed government security personnel. Both sides has accused the alternative of provoking attacks.
The U.N.-backed cease-fire is a part of a peace plan mediated by international envoy Kofi Annan.
A spokesman for the U.N. mission in Syria said observers have arrange permanent bases within the towns of Homs, Hama, Daraa and Idlib, all areas of the opposition targeted inside the government's 13-month crackdown.
Neeraj Singh also said it's a "matter of maximum urgency" for the United Nations to expand the monitoring mission in Syria to incorporate the entire 300 personnel authorized by the U.N. Security Council. It's unclear when and if the entire contingent should be deployed.
General Mood has years of expertise in U.N. peacekeeping operations, including with peacekeepers in Lebanon, in addition to leading the U.N. Truce Supervision Organization from 2009 to 2011. The UNTSO was the U.N.'s first peacekeeping operation, started after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to observe a cease-fire. It now watches cease-fires round the Middle East.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
| Join the conversation on our social journalism site - Middle East Voices. Follow our Middle East reports on Twitter and discuss them on our Facebook page. |
From WhatNewsToday.net
0 comments:
Post a Comment