The Associated Press
December 9, 2012 Sunday 08:08 PM GMT
Syria’s civil war spills into Lebanon, 4 dead
By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press
BEIRUT
Syria’s civil war spilled over into neighboring Lebanon once again on
Sunday, with gun battles in the northern city of Tripoli between
supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad’s regime that left
four dead.
Nine Syrian judges and prosecutors also defected to the opposition. It
was the latest setback for the regime, which appears increasingly
embattled with rebels making gains in northern Syria and near
Damascus, the capital.
The defecting judges posted a joint statement online urging others to
join them and break ranks with Assad’s regime. There have been several
high-level defections over the past year, including Assad’s former
prime minister.
In Geneva, the United Nation’s Special Representative for Syria and
the Arab League, Lakdhar Brahimi, met with Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William
Burns to discuss the crisis in Syria. They said in a joint statement
that the situation in Syria was “bad and getting worse,” adding that a
political process to end the conflict was “still necessary and still
possible.”
Russia and the United States have argued bitterly over how to address
the conflict, which began with peaceful protests against Assad in
March 2011 and escalated into a civil war that has killed an estimated
40,000 people. Activists said another 45 were killed on Sunday.
The U.S. has criticized Russia for shielding the Assad regime, while
Moscow has accused Washington of encouraging the rebels and being
intent on regime change.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia
agreed to take part in the Geneva talks on condition there would be no
demand for Assad to step down. Washington and its allies, including
Turkey and Qatar, have repeatedly called on the Syrian president to
step down to help stop the bloodshed.
“We are not conducting any negotiations on the fate of Assad,” Lavrov
said, adding that the Americans were wrong to see Moscow as softening
its position on Syria. “All attempts to portray things differently are
unscrupulous, even for diplomats of those countries which are known to
try to distort the facts in their favor.”
Addressing fears that Assad could use chemical weapons in a last-ditch
effort to save his regime, Lavrov once again said the Syrian
government has given assurances that it has no intention of ever using
the weapons of mass destruction. He said the greatest threat is that
they would fall into the hands of militants.
Russia’s foreign minister said that after he agreed to a U.S. proposal
to have his and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s deputies
“brainstorm” on Syria, the Americans began to suggest that Russia was
softening its position.
“No such thing,” Lavrov said. “We have not changed our position.”
He urged the international community to come together and “with one
voice” to demand a cease-fire, return U.N. observers in bigger numbers
and begin a political dialogue. Lavrov repeated that Russia was not
wedded to Assad but believed that only the Syrians have the right to
choose their leaders.
In Washington, a senior State Department official said the U.S.
remains willing to hold additional discussions in the weeks ahead, if
it would help “advance the process of political transition that the
people of Syria seek.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to discuss Sunday’s meeting in Geneva
with reporters.
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani
urged Assad to step down. With the rebels at the president’s doorstep
in Damascus, he said, Assad knows the regime will fall.
“But how much killing and destruction does he want before this
inevitable outcome?” Hamad said after an Arab League meeting in the
Qatari capital, Doha.
In Lebanon, fighting between pro-and anti-Assad gunmen flared as
bodies of three Lebanese, who were killed after crossing into Syria to
fight in the civil war were brought back home for burial, the
state-run National News Agency said.
Four people were killed and 12 were wounded in the gunfights, the
agency said. Two Lebanese soldiers were also injured, the Lebanese
Armed Forces command said.
Syria civil war has often spilled into neighboring countries including
Turkey, Lebanon and Israel, raising concerns of a wider war in the
volatile region.
Lebanon, which Syria dominated for decades, is particularly vulnerable
to getting sucked into the crisis. The two countries share a porous
border and a complex web of political and sectarian ties.
Syria’s opposition is dominated by members of the Sunni Muslim
minority. Assad’s regime is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of
Shiite Islam.
Tripoli has been the scene of frequent sectarian clashes between the
Alawite and Sunni Muslim communities. Last week, the Lebanese army
sent additional troops to Tripoli to try to prevent clashes that broke
out over reports that 17 Lebanese men were killed after entering Syria
to fight alongside the rebels.
In Syria, fighting between opposition fighters and regime troops was
concentrated in northern Idlib province, in the Damascus suburbs and
in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, according to the Britain-based
opposition activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At
least 45 people were killed in fighting Sunday, said the group, which
relies on reports from activists on the ground.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said four people were killed when a
rocket slammed into the Armenian quarter of the city of Homs. SANA
said “terrorists” were behind the attack that also injured several
others. Damascus refers to rebels as terrorists and mercenaries of
Western and Gulf countries.
The Observatory also said rebels have made significant advances in the
battle over a sprawling military base west of Aleppo after heavy
clashes with regime troops Sunday.
Associated Press writers Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, Lynn Berry in
Moscow, John Heilprin in Geneva, Switzerland, Matthew Lee in
Washington, and Abdullah Rebhy, in Doha, Qatar, contributed to this
report.
From: Baghdasarian