Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Syria escalates crackdown

As the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deployed tanks and soldiers to the town of Dara'a in an attempt to quash a growing threat to his rule, the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory late Monday calling for the evacuation of diplomats' families and non-essential personnel at the U.S. embassy. It also urged U.S. citizens in Syria to leave the country immediately.

About 400 Syrians have already lost their lives in Syria's unrest, and at least 25 people have been killed so far in Dara'a during Assad's latest crackdown.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that the U.N. Security Council was considering steps to punish Syria for its brutal suppression of dissent. European and U.S. officials have distributed a draft statement that condemns the crackdown, and supports U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's call for an independent investigation of events in Syria.

Syria's state-run news agency justified the crackdown in Dara'a by saying that the Syrian Army had been invited into the town by its residents, to drive out "extremist terrorist groups."

Source: The Foreign Policy (FP)

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