SYRIEN - En sammanställning av konflikten

The Syrian Interior Ministry stated that criminal groups escalated their aggressions and criminal acts "perpetrating heinous crimes that claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians, booby-trapping private buildings, kidnapping and looting private and public properties". A statement by the Ministry explained that "the competent authorities practiced the utmost self-restraint and gave terrorists a number of opportunities to return to the road of right.. but they refused and escalated their terror instigated by foreign sides.. all of this pushed the authorities to intervene and deal with them to restore security and stability to Homs".[117]

Sky News described the incident as "the worst attack of the uprising, since the uprising began in March 2011 until now" and opposition activists said that "Syrian forces are shelling the district with mortars from several locations." Abu Rami Alhomsy of the Syrian Revolutionary General Commission claimed the shelling lasted more than three hours. "It was a normal day for a demonstration but last night they started shelling this neighbourhood. We have many injuries. Many women and children have been killed and injured. I am hiding in the street with many people around me. They are shooting into here from an outside area."[118]

The Syrian government denied that the shelling occurred and that it was a fabrication by opposition groups to try to influence a UNSC resolution that sought to condemn the Syrian government the same day. It also accused the armed groups in Homs of killing soldiers and civilians.[21]

Many news sources, and the governments of Turkey and France, have described the attack as a "massacre".[119][120] In response, protesters attacked Syrian embassies in a number of cities worldwide.[121]

The United Nations Security Council voted on an Arab League proposal to resolve problems in Syria following these events. The People's Republic of China and Russia vetoed the resolution.[32][122]

Tunisia said it would expel the Syrian ambassador in response to what it called a "bloody massacre" and announced it no longer recognises the ruling government.[123]

In other countries, Syrian expatriates protested against the attack. Syrian embassies in Egypt and Germany were attacked, with protesters setting fire to part of the embassy[124] and at least 30 people storming the premises, respectively. There was more than 150 protesters chanting outside the London embassy at 3:00.[118] Around 50 mostly Syrian protesters broke into their country's embassy in Greece on that morning, smashing windows and painting anti-government slogans on the walls, a police source told the AFP. Twelve Syrians and an Iraqi were arrested afterwards.[125] In Kuwait, witnesses said demonstrators stormed the Syrian embassy compound breaking windows and hoisting the flag of the opposition.[126] The Syrian Embassy in Australia was also damaged and ransacked.[127] There were also protests outside the Syrian embassy in the United States.[128]

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE agreed to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus, and expel the Syrian ambassadors to their respective countries, in protest at the Syrian governments crackdown, particularly in Homs.[129][130] Germany, Spain, Belgium and France also announced the withdrawal of ambassadors from Syria.[131] The Netherlands also recalled its ambassador.[132] The United Kingdom followed these countries and also recalled their ambassador.[133]

UN rights chief Navi Pillay called for urgent international action to protect civilians in Syria. "I am appalled by the Syrian government's wilful assault on Homs, and its use of artillery and other heavy weaponry in what appear to be indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in the city," a statement from Pillay said. "The failure of the Security Council to agree on firm collective action appears to have fuelled the Syrian government's readiness to massacre its own people in an effort to crush dissent."[134] EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has stated: "I am appalled by the reports of the brutal attacks by the Syrian armed forces in Homs. I condemn in the strongest terms these acts perpetrated by the Syrian regime against its own civilians The international community must speak with one voice, demanding an end to the bloodshed and urging Assad to step aside and allow a democratic transition."[135]

In Libya, protesters took over the Syrian embassy and the official National Transitional Council handed control of the embassy to the opposition or "revolutionaries".[136] Syrians residing in Libya protested outside the country's Russian embassy in Tripoli, eventually hoisting a Syrian opposition flag.[137] Libyans and Syrians also rallied outside the Chinese embassy in Libya, "to denounce China’s decision to veto a UN resolution that would seek to end the violence and bloodshed in Syria."[138] Libya also expelled the ambassador for the al-Assad government; the ambassador's car was attacked by unarmed Syrian protesters as he fled Tripoli.[139]

The UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, says he has received "grisly reports" that Syrian government forces are arbitrarily executing, imprisoning and torturing people in Homs after opposition fighters in the city retreated.

"A major assault on Homs took place yesterday," Ban told the UN General Assembly in New York on 2 March. "Civilian losses have clearly been heavy. We continue to received grisly reports of summary executions, arbitrary detentions and torture. This atrocious assault is all the more appalling for having been waged by the government itself, systematically attacking its own people". Activists said that government forces were rounding up people aged between 14-50 and executing them in batches.[140]

This came after the Prime minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, accused the government of butchering its own people. This is while 10 civilians were said to have been executed outside a shop in Bab Amr. Speaking in Brussels, he said:

"The Assad regime is butchering its own people. The history of Homs is being written in the blood of its citizens."
"The situation in Syria is absolutely appalling and it is vitally important that there is humanitarian access into Homs and elsewhere so that people can get the help they need."
"But above all, what I think matters, is building the evidence and the picture so we hold this criminal regime to account and make sure that it is held to account for the crimes it is committing against its people and that one day, no matter how long it takes, there will be a day of reckoning for this dreadful regime."[141]

Assad's government had "broken all the limits of barbarism". French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said. "And when I see the Syrian president paraded around this voting station in Damascus for this phony referendum, it makes you deeply indignant," he told RTL radio. Juppe said he felt "immensely frustrated" at difficulties in obtaining security guarantees to enable wounded civilians and Western journalists to be evacuated from Homs.[142]

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of seeking to "wipe Homs from the map", comparing his campaign to the Libyan government's attacks on the city of Benghazi. "Bashar al-Assad is lying in a shameful way, he wants to wipe Homs from the map like (former Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi wanted to wipe Benghazi from the map," Sarkozy said