U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the situation in Syria is “at a critical turning point.” Speaking in Brussels, she said either the U.N.'s plan will succeed in bringing about peace or that the Assad government will, in her words, “squander its last chance” before additional measures to stop the violence are considered.
Clinton said it is “concerning” that the guns of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are once again firing in Homs and Idlib. She did not elaborate on what additional measures could be taken, and said she was speaking only for the United States.
Syria's nearly week-old cease-fire continued to deteriorate Wednesday as a bombing killed six Syrian law enforcement officers and government forces renewed shelling in Homs.
The state-run SANA news agency says an “armed terrorist group” detonated an explosive device planted on a road in the northern Idlib province. It also says a sniper killed a police officer in the southern city of Daraa.
Activists say shots were fired in a Damascus suburb on Wednesday during a visit by international monitors. It is unclear who was responsible for the shooting, which took place during an anti-government protest.
Rights groups and activists say Syrian forces have continued pounding rebel-held neighborhoods in the flashpoint city of Homs.
The government has said it has the right to respond to attacks from what it calls “terrorists,” despite its agreement to a peace plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. The plan also calls for opposition groups to cease violence.
Yezid Sayigh of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut told VOA that the continued violence after the cease-fire went into effect shows it will be difficult to keep each side in check.
“The Syrian cease-fire was always going to face immense challenges, partly because the regime isn't fundamentally committed to seeing it work and therefore is likely to use any excuse or opportunity it has to continue to act militarily against its opponents.”
Sayigh added that Mr. Annan faces a challenge in getting rebel groups to also commit to the peace plan.
“The armed rebel groups are very disparate. They don't have a proper command and control structure. They have divergent political or ideological agendas and affiliations and so it is going to be and will remain very difficult for a long time to come, I think, to ensure that all opposition groups necessarily commit to the same rules or agreements.”
On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council is expected to consider a proposal from Secretary-General Ban ki-moon to expand the observer mission in Syria.
Ban said Tuesday the team of 250 monitors, originally envisioned, may not be sufficient.
He has also asked the European Union for planes and helicopters to make the mission more effective.
The U.N. says the crackdown in Syria has killed more than 9,000 people since March 2011.
The international community is concerned over the illicit shipment of arms into Syria.
Turkish officials said they intercepted a ship suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria, a move that could breach an arms embargo on Damascus. Inspectors were searching the German vessel on Wednesday in a Turkish port.
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