Syria crisis: new 'massacre' in Damascus suburb - Monday 22 April

Here's a summary of the main events today:

Syria

Conflicting accounts have emerged of an alleged massacre in a south-western suburb of Damascus. Syrian opposition activists claim up to 566 people were killed when forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed Jdeidet al-Fadel and shelled residential areas. State media said "large numbers" of terrorists had been killed in an operation. A Syrian military source said the army was acting to protect civilians from rebels, who he said were responsible for the massacre.

Human Rights Watch has urged Syrian rebels to stop indiscriminate attacks on residential areas in Lebanon after a rebel brigade shelled Shia villages in cross border attacks last week. Syria's opposition coalition urged rebel fighters to show "restraint" and respects Lebanon's sovereignty.

Russia has warned the European Union not to lift the arms embargo preventing weapons supplies to Syrian rebels. The foreign ministers of Britain and France are lobbying their colleagues not to renew the embargo at a meeting in Luxembourg.

 Eight Syrians have been arrested on suspicion of inciting violence at the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan, the BBC reports citing officials. The arrests come after 10 police officers were injured when around 100 camp residents threw stones they were preventing from leaving the camp on Friday. The website Syria Video highlightsfootage of Friday's riot.

Kuwait

Assad’s mood is upbeat, according to an account of a meeting on Sunday with Lebanese allies, published in the Beirut daily as-Safir, writes Ian Black.

Assad is quoted as saying:

Our strategy is to keep Damascus and the other cities under army control. As concerns the countryside, we deliberately choose to clear some areas for tactical reasons at times. Better we sap (their strength) than having them sap ours.

The so-called Free (Syrian) Army is effectively undone. We’re now fighting al-Qaida. Some 23 foreign nationalities are currently fighting on Syrian soil.

Today, however, we are winning (the hearts and minds) of some of our adversaries. For example, we responded wisely when armed rebels broke into the Yarmouk camp (for Palestinian refugees). We were urged to force them out. Instead, we reinforced our positions around the camp and fenced in the armed insurgents. In no time, we heard residents clamouring for the terrorists to be evicted.”

The battle will be very long, but our sole choice is to win it.

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Syria's opposition coalition claims 566 people were killed in the "massacre" in Jdeidet al-Fadel. Three of its leaders – George Sabra, Suheir Attasi and Riyad Saif – are due to hold a press conference on attack in Istanbul this evening.

Last night the coalition put out a statement saying:

New details are emerging regarding the latest heinous crime committed by the Assad regime. The number of victims continues to rise and has reached the hundreds. News sources confirm that the Assad regime has committed horrifying civilian massacres in the besieged villages of Artouz al-Fadl and surrounding areas.
 
The deafening silence of the international community over these crimes against humanity is shameful, and has become routine for the victims and their families. The demands for international human rights organisations to intervene have been a lost cause. Syrians no longer expect an answer to our pleas for help or a chivalrous intervention from our brothers and neighbours. We no longer expect to be supported with the necessary arms to empower the Free Syrian Army to defend our people.

The Syrian army gives a very different account of the killings south-west of Damascus.

A military source told Mona Mahmood that troops moved into Jdeidet al-Fadel to protect civilians, and he blamed the alleged massacre on rebels. Speaking via Skype the source, who gave his name as Maher Yarab, said:

The Syrian army decided to launch an attack to clear out the district of Jdeidet al-Fadel in response to repeated calls for help from civilians who have suffered so much since rebels stormed the district few weeks ago.

The district is known to support the Syrian government. Residents said family members were being murdered. And more than 20 soldier and 50 civilians were reported kidnapped in the district by the rebels.

First the army had to deal with snipers who were deployed all over the district in homes in residential areas. Some of the homes involved had been abandoned others had been taken by force as a base for snipers.

Two officers and many soldiers had been killed by these snipers. Residents in the area provided information about the hideouts, which proved very useful.

After getting rid of most of the snipers, the army started to enter the area's four districts one at a time. Soon afterwards, very fierce clashes broke out. More than 80 rebels were killed.

On the second day another officer was injured and many soldiers were killed, but about 40 rebels were also killed.

The rebels began to retreat and the Syrian army advanced into the third section of the district – the most dangerous. That was where most of the rebels had pulled back to.

The army began using artillery and tanks. More than 70 rebels were killed and many others arrested.

Then the army began to comb the fourth section where soldiers found a mass grave. Rebels claimed a massacre was committed, but it was a grave for dead rebels and civilians and troops that they had killed.

As the army started excavating the mass grave, rebels started firing RPGs and mortar rounds. The Syrian army responded with artillery and tank fire. During the attack the Syrian army killed a notorious terrorists called Muhammed Jameel Noufel. It also confiscated many weapons left by the rebels.

The rebels always commit massacres themselves to try to pin the blame on the army. They burned the bodies to cover up their crimes.

He highlighted a state TV account of the attacks [Warning: disturbing content].

EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg appear to be set to lift an oil embargo on Syria AP reports.

The decision will allow for crude exports from rebel-held territory and the import of oil production technology. It marks the first relaxing of the EU's sanctions in two years as governments try to help ease shortages of vital supplies in areas held by the opposition in the civil war-struck Arab state.

Ahead of a meeting of the EU's 27 foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Germany's chief diplomat, Guido Westerwelle, said the move aims at "granting stronger economic support" for the rebels.

AFP quotes from a draft of the plan, New Europe reports. It said the EU 

“considers it necessary to introduce derogations with a view to helping the Syrian civilian population ... in particular to meeting humanitarian concerns, restoring normal life, upholding basic services, reconstruction, and restoring normal economic activity.”

An agenda of the foreign ministers' meeting is available here.

Russia has warned the European Union not to lift the arms embargo preventing weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, despite British and French lobbying, Reuters reports.

Foreign minster Sergei Lavrov said an embargo was unnecessary in the first place because such supplies were prohibited by international law.

If the embargo is removed, "the international obligations of the EU countries, which prohibit supplies of arms and ammunition to non-government actors, are not going anywhere", he said at a news briefing.

Lavrov said he and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry would discuss ways to promote a peace process in Syria at talks on the sidelines of a Nato gathering and a Russia-Nato foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

"We will discuss what we, Russia and the United States, can do to convince those who ... are resisting the peace process to step onto the path of implementing the Geneva agreements," Lavrov said.

Britain's foreign secretary William Hague says reports of a massacre near Damascus provide more evidence against the Assad government.

Reacting to the reports, he said:

I am appalled by the reports of the killing by Syrian government forces of dozens of people, including women and children, in the town of Jdaidet al-Fadel, a suburb of Damascus. This is yet another reminder of the callous brutality of the Assad regime and the terrible climate of impunity inside Syria.

It underlines the urgent need to bring the conflict in Syria to an end. At the Friends of Syria Core Group meeting with the Syrian opposition National Coalition in Istanbul we agreed to redouble efforts to reach a political resolution and increase support to the opposition, and I will be discussing these efforts with European Foreign Ministers today.

Human Rights Watch has urged Syrian rebels to stop indiscriminate attacks on residential areas in Lebanon.

It said the Omar al-Farouq Brigade, shelled the Shia villages of al-Qasr and Hawsh al-Sayyed in northern Bekaa killing two civilians and wounding three, last week.

On Saturday it said rebels appeared to have fired shells and rockets on the towns of Hermel, Sahlat al-Ma’, and al-Qasr, in northern Bekaa.A Hermel resident said there were no military targets in area.

Syria's opposition coalition accused Lebanon's Hezbollah movement of being behind bombing attacks on Syrian villages. But it also urged rebel fighters to show "restraint" and respects Lebanon's sovereignty, Kuwait's news agency reported.

It quoted a coalition statement as saying:

Due to the sensitivity of the situation on the border between Syria and Lebanon and to ensure the safety of civilians in those areas and to avoid any risk in the future, we call for utmost restraint on the part of the Free Syrian Army fighters in the western Homs region, and we urge all to respect the sovereign borders of Lebanon.

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The activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria, has published an English-language account of its version of the killings in Jdaidet al-Fadel

It says:

After clashes between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and regime forces, and despite the FSA’s withdrawal to save civilian lives, the regime mobilized large numbers from its 4th Division, Republican Guard, Lebanese Hezbollah, and shabbiha militias from the Somarieh barracks to storm the city and attack civilians. Many of the casualties were women, children, and elderly persons. Some victims were slaughtered; others were shot. The corpses were set on fire near positions controlled by the regime’s 100th Regiment. These regime forces also launched an indiscriminate arrest campaign, which affected a large number of people who were trying to bury the martyrs of the massacre.

Nadim Houry from Human Rights Watch notes that the details are still vague and hard of verify, because of reporting restrictions.

Many women and children were among those killed over the last few days in a south-west suburb of Damascus, according to an activists from the city.

Speaking to the Guardian via Skype, Susan Ahmad, spokeswoman for the Revolutionary Council in Damascus, said:

Today in the morning, we discovered seven bodies killed in a building. These people were displaced [from the nearby suburbs of] Darayaa and Moadamyeh to Jdaidet al-Fadel seeking a safer place, but they unfortunately they got killed there by Assad’s forces.

We documented the names of all the dead bodies. The number is rising to almost 400. Every day we discover more and more dead bodies.

They [Assad’s forces] are acting like mad people. After slaughtering people, they burn the bodies.

It is not a civil war, actually it’s genocide. The Free Syrian Army was there because they are everywhere. They were already there but they were not active.

Why did Assad’s forces attacked Jdaidet al-Fadel now? They did so because for months they have been trying to storm Darayaa and Moadamyeh, but in vain. So they wanted to something to prove they are still in control and to lift their soldiers’ spirits up. So they went to that little village and started shelling it. After that they said ‘the Free Syrian Army are there. The Free Syria Army are terrorists so please leave the area or we are going to shell the whole area’. That’s what happen. After the Free Syrian Army withdrew snipers spread everywhere. They shot children just because they came close to windows. How can Assad’s forces say that they are fighting terrorists? Most of the dead people are civilians, and they were killed after the Free Syria Army withdrew.

Ahmad claimed several southern and eastern Damascus suburbs were under rebel control, but opposition forces have yet to penetrate the centre of the city.

My neighbourhood [in northern Damscus] is under the control of Assad’s forces. We don’t have the Free Syrian Army here and still they shell it every other day.

Assad’s forces are determined to kill more people and never give up. I’m afraid that the worst is still to come, because there is nothing serious yet inside Damascus. The big battle hasn’t started yet.

Earlier this month, Jabhat al-Nusra one of the rebel groups fighting Assad’s regime declared, allegiance to al-Qaida. Ahmad said the international community was using this to justify not providing arms to the Syrian opposition.

It’s just another excuse not to help us ... Civilians are getting killed and all the world is just watching, putting excuses and just saying ‘we are going to meet, we are going to help’ but nothing real happens.

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Claims from activists about the apparent killings in suburbs south-west of Damascus are becoming more alarming. AP reports:

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the number of dead could be as high as 250.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, says the group has documented 80 names of those killed in Jdaidet Artouz and Jdaidet al-Fadel suburbs.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, says the death toll is 483. It says most of the people were killed in Jdaidet Artouz.

Welcome to Middle East Live. 

Here's a roundup of the latest developments: 

Syria

 Syrian forces and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, killed at least 85 people and possibly many more when they stormed a Damascus suburb after five days of fighting, Reuters reports citing activists. There was no immediate confirmation of the activists' account of what they described as a "massacre", in which women and children were killed, at Jdeidet al-Fadel. Jamal al-Golani, a member of the Revolution Leadership Council of Damascus – an opposition group – said the number of dead could be higher than 250. The state news agency said the army eliminated "large numbers of terrorists" in the area. 

Syria's opposition has reacted angrily to the refusal by the US and its western allies to do more to help, amid signs Bashar al-Assad's regime is gaining ground in the international debate about how to handle the country's two-year crisis. Moaz al-Khatib, leader of the mainstream National Opposition Coalition, the rebel group backed by Arab and western governments, registered his dismay by confirming on Sunday that his resignation - first announced nearly a month ago but not implemented - was now final. 

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Syrian rebels have fire more rockets into Lebanese towns near the border after threats by the rebel Free Syrian Army and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, that they would move the battle to Lebanon if Hezbollah continued to fight alongside Syrian soldiers, Lebanon's Daily Star reports. The main Syrian opposition group called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately, warning their involvement in Syria could lead to greater risks in the area.

Britain and France will renew their attempts to lift the EU arms embargo on Syria in talks with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, the Daily Telegraph reports.  It noted that Germany appeared to soften its opposition to the plan when foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said he would accept the lifting of the arms embargo if other countries pushed for it. On Saturday Westerwelle urged the Syrian opposition to distance itself from terrorists. 

Eight Syrians have been arrested on suspicion of inciting violence at the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan, the BBC reports citing officials. The arrests come after 10 police officers were injured when around 100 camp residents threw stones they were preventing from leaving the camp on Friday. The website Syria Video highlights footage of Friday's riot. 

Bahrain

Heavy security prevented pro-democracy protests disrupting Sunday's controversial grand prix, the Independent reports. The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights said several small protests were broken up by security forces throughout the day in the villages of Sanabis, al-Daih and Jidhafs, where police arrested 13 protesters. The group said police had fired tear gas at a secondary school where students were demonstrating. 

Egypt