By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN, March 9 (Reuters) - Syrian tanks fired on opposition districts in Homs on Friday, killing four people, activists said, ahead of a mission by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to end a year-long conflict edging into civil war.
Opponents of President Bashar al-Assad said they were planning to show their strength in the streets after weekly Muslim prayers, but the tankfire kept many indoors in Homs.
They said nationwide protests would mark the anniversary of Kurdish unrest in northeastern Syria in 2004 that was crushed by security forces with about 30 people killed.
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Annan has called for dialogue to reach a political solution, but opposition figures chided him for a proposal they said would only give Assad's forces more time to crush his foes.
Rifts among big powers have blocked any U.N. action to resolve the crisis, with China and Russia firmly opposing any measure that might lead to Libya-style military intervention.
China welcomed the former U.N. chief's mission. "We hope that Mr Annan uses his wisdom and experience to push for all sides in Syria to end their violence and start the process of peace talks," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.
China, which despatched an envoy to Syria this week, said on Friday it would send an assistant foreign minister to the Middle East and to France to discuss the crisis. Beijing has told other powers not to use humanitarian aid to "intefere" in Syria.
Russia, an old ally of Damascus and its main arms supplier, has defended Assad against critics of his bloody crackdown, twice joining China in vetoing U.N. resolutions on Syria.
"We shall not support any resolution that gives any basis for the use of force against Syria," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov tweeted late on Thursday.
A Russian diplomat said Assad was battling al Qaeda-backed "terrorists" including at least 15,000 foreign fighters who would seize cities if government troops withdrew.
RUSSIAN ROLE
Moscow could play a vital role in any diplomatic effort to ease Assad from power and spare Syria further bloodletting.
"If (Annan) can persuade Russia to back a transitional plan, the regime would be confronted with the choice of either agreeing to negotiate in good faith or facing near-total isolation through loss of a key ally," the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a paper this week.
In Damascus, security forces killed a civilian overnight when residents of the Kfar Souseh district shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) from their homes, activists said.
The funeral of Mohammad Sarayji, 30, was due to take place at noon, an occasion likely to lead to further protests.
The state news agency SANA said "huge crowds" had turned out in Damascus and the northeastern city of Hassaka to show support for Assad's reforms and opposition to "foreign interference".
Syrian security forces have already killed well over 7,500 people since the anti-Assad uprising began a year ago, according to a U.N. estimate. The government said in December that "armed terrorists" had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 18 more killed on Thursday, while the grassroots Local Coordination Committees put the death toll at 62, including 44 people it said had been slain in cold blood in Homs.
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos was visiting Syrian refugees in border camps in Turkey after her trip to Syria, where she found scenes of destruction in Homs but few civilians in the battered former rebel bastion of Baba Amr.
Annan has an impressive record as a mediator, but he will need all his skills to halt Syria's slide into civil war.
"The killing has to stop and we need to find a way of putting in the appropriate reforms and moving forward," he said in Cairo where he met Arab Leage chief Nabil Elaraby. Annan said any further militarisation of the conflict would make it worse.
Syrian dissidents reacted with dismay and said government repression had destroyed prospects of a negotiated deal.
"We reject any dialogue while tanks shell our towns, snipers shoot our women and children and many areas are cut off from the world by the regime without electricity, communications or water," said Hadi Abdullah, an activist contacted in Homs.
The Syrian opposition denies any al Qaeda role in a popular uprising against nearly five decades of Baathist rule that erupted last March, inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere.
Assad's violent response to peaceful demonstrations prompted some Syrians, mostly lightly armed Sunni Muslim army deserters, to fight back in an unequal struggle against Assad's 300,000-strong military, secret police and feared Alawite militiamen.
Two rebel groups said four brigadier-generals had defected over the past three days to a camp for Syrian army deserters in Turkey. Earlier Syria's deputy oil minister became the first senior civilian official to announce his defection. (Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara, Sabrina Mao and Ben Blanchard in Beijing, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Tom Miles in Geneva, Erika Solomon in Beirut; Writing by Alistair Lyon; editing by Janet McBride)
10:48 AM – Today
Idlib, Syria
Syrian women and children take shelter from fierce fighting between the Free Syrian Army and government troops in Idlib, north Syria, Saturday, March 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) 10:45 AM – Today
Syria Begins Pulling AmbassadorsSyria has begun to withdraw its ambassadors from European countries, Reuters reports. The Syrian government fears EU nations will expel the diplomats as Europe has been discussing a France-led proposal to downgrade diplomatic ties with the Assad regime.
An EU foreign policy spokesman told Reuters that "there is an ongoing discussion about the status of EU embassies in Syria and Syrian embassies in Brussels and in EU states, but there is no proposal at the moment to expel Syrian diplomats."
Read the full article.
An EU foreign policy spokesman told Reuters that "there is an ongoing discussion about the status of EU embassies in Syria and Syrian embassies in Brussels and in EU states, but there is no proposal at the moment to expel Syrian diplomats."
Read the full article.
8:47 AM – Today
Fleeing From GunfireFootage from Douma posted online by activists purports to show residents fleeing from gunfire. From Reuters:
4:14 PM – 03/09/2012
Negotiations On New UN Resolution DifficultIt is unlikely that the UN Security Council will agree on a new resolution on Syria, the United States said on Friday. Reuters reports that State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that negotiations had made no progress.
Reuters reports:
Reuters reports:
"We are, frankly, not over optimistic that an agreed text will be reached in the future," Nuland told reporters. The U.S.-backed resolution follows two earlier proposed condemnations of Damascus that Russia and China vetoed. The council has remained deadlocked over Syria's military operations against pro-democracy protesters the United Nations says has killed over 7,500 civilians.
Nuland said the United States and its Arab partners would continue to press Moscow to change course and drop its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to attend an Arab League meeting in Cairo over the weekend, and he will meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday on the sidelines of a Security Council debate on the "Arab Spring" uprisings.
"This is now topic one, two and three in our conversation with Moscow," Nuland said.
"We would like to see Russia do what it can to put pressure, because as we've said, our concern is for the Syrian people. And it is time for Russia to stand with them."
The U.S.-drafted resolution at the United Nations came as Washington seeks to muster international support for an Arab League plan for a political transition in Syria that has drawn opposition primarily from Moscow but also from China.
HAGGLING OVER "BALANCE"
The U.S. draft, obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, demands "unhindered humanitarian access" and "condemns the continued widespread, systematic, and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities and demands that the Syrian government immediately put an end to such violations."
It also would have the council demand Syria release all persons detained arbitrarily and withdraw the military from cities, where security forces have sought to crush anti-government protests.
Russia and China proposed amendments to the U.S. draft that would have weakened it significantly, according to a Western diplomat.
Their amendments would have dropped calls for "further measures" if Damascus does not comply with the resolution and balanced calls on Syria to withdraw its troops from cities with a demand that rebel fighters simultaneously stop the violence, the diplomat said.
U.N. ambassadors from the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Morocco began discussing the draft on Tuesday.
Several Western diplomats had already expressed disappointment with the existing U.S. draft, saying it fell far short of an appropriately tough condemnation of the Assad government's nearly year-long clamp-down.
Russia and China said the main reason they vetoed a council resolution backing the Arab plan last month was because it was an attempt to push Libya-style "regime change" in Syria.
3:45 PM – 03/09/2012
Protests In Idlib
Women chant anti-government slogans during a demonstration in Idlib, north Syria, Friday, March 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) 
A woman weeps as she prays during an anti-government demonstration in Idlib, north Syria, Friday, March 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) 
Women chant anti-government slogans during an a demonstration in Idlib, north Syria, Friday, March 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) 1:39 PM – 03/09/2012
Friday's Death Toll Rises  | @ Reuters : Syrian forces kill 54 ahead of Annan peace mission http://t.co/vQzuMvYf |
1:33 PM – 03/09/2012
Hopes Fim For Resolution  | @ AP : U.S. hopes dim for U.N. resolution on Syria as Russia continues to reject to language it says is biased: http://t.co/4lrjtWPH -BW |
12:47 PM – 03/09/2012
Generals Flee Syria  | @ BBCWorld : Turkish government sources confirm 2 Syrian military generals were among 230 Syrians who fled to Turkey on Thursday http://t.co/Az3XSEJ1 |
11:04 AM – 03/09/2012
25,000 People Fled SyriaThe United Nations estimates at least 25,000 Syrians have fled violence in their country since the start of the conflict in March 2011, Reuters reports. Spokesman for the UN refugee agency Adrian Edwards released the numbers on Friday.
Reuters summarizes:
Reuters summarizes:
TURKEY Some 12,000 Syrians are registered at several camps set up in Turkey's southern province of Hatay, including about 800 who crossed during the past week, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Two Syrian generals, a colonel and a sergeant were among 234 people who arrived in Hatay's Reyhanli district on Friday, a Foreign Ministry official told Reuters. Similar numbers were now crossing over on a daily basis, he said.
The previous U.N. estimate of the camp population in Turkey was 10,800, which Edwards said had been fairly steady over the past year.
LEBANON
In Lebanon, there are 4,000-5,000 Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley, up from about 3,000 a few weeks ago.
On March 5, residents in the hillside town of Arsal in the Bekaa Valley told Reuters that up to 150 families had arrived from Syria the previous day, one of the biggest influxes so far. Those families trekked on foot through snow-capped hills to safety, but many others were caught, one refugee told Reuters.
In northern Lebanon, the UNHCR and the Lebanon High Relief Commission have jointly registered 7,000 refugees, including a few thousand in the city of Tripoli.
There are thought to be about 1,000 Syrian refugees in other parts of Lebanon.
JORDAN
About 4,500 Syrians have been registered over the last year, about 500 of them recent arrivals.
8:07 AM – 03/09/2012
Activists: 21 Dead Across SyriaActivists say Syrian security forces have killed at least 21 people across Syria on Friday, including nine people who died after tank shelled the city of Homs.
"Thirty tanks entered my neighbourhood at seven this morning and they are using their cannons to fire on houses," Karam Abu Rabea, a resident of the Karm al-Zeitoun district in Homs told Reuters. "There is gunfire and they are using rocket-propelled grenades," he said.
"Thirty tanks entered my neighbourhood at seven this morning and they are using their cannons to fire on houses," Karam Abu Rabea, a resident of the Karm al-Zeitoun district in Homs told Reuters. "There is gunfire and they are using rocket-propelled grenades," he said.
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