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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/04/201242416420297749.html

Annan calls new Syria violence 'unacceptable'

Kofi Annan's spokesman says regime troops intimidated and perhaps killed locals who spoke to ceasefire monitors. Last Modified: 24 Apr 2012 20:27 inShare14 Email Print Share Feedback

State TV reported three people were wounded in an attack by an "armed terrorist group" in Marjeh district [AFP] Syria is still seeing "unacceptable" levels of violence, envoy Kofi Annan has told the UN Security Council, after dozens of people were reportedly killed across the country despite a ceasefire. "The situation in Syria continues to be unacceptable," Annan told a closed-door meeting. He spoke after a car bomb rocked central Damascus, wounding three people, while dozens were killed across the country a day earlier ahead of the deployment of 300 UN peace observers. Syrian troops have also intimidated and perhaps, in some cases, even killed people who spoke to United Nations truce mediators in the country, a spokesperson for mediator Kofi Annnan said, citing "credible reports". Ahmad Fawzi on Tuesday also said that satellite imagery showed that government forces had not withdrawn all heavy weapons from urban centres and returned to their barracks as they are required to do under a UN-backed peace plan. "They [Syrian authorities] are claiming that this [withdrawal] has happened. Satellite imagery, however, and credible reports show  hat this has not fully happened, so this is unacceptable, and Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan will be saying this to the Security Council today when he addresses them in closed session," said Fawzi before the briefing. "We are calling on the Syrian government to fully implement its commitments under the ceasefire," he said. Annan, who delivered a speech at Lund University in Sweden on Tuesday, is due to brief the UN Security Council later in the day by video link. "He will be laying out the challenges on the ground, the challenges of monitoring with very few observers, the challenges of launching a political process while there is no cessation of hostilities, because you need a cessation of hostilities to begin a credible process," Fawzi said. Eleven UN observers are deployed in Syria as part of an advance team monitoring compliance with a truce that went into  effect on April 12 but remains "extremely fragile", he said. "They are entering areas where there has been conflict like Homs and Hama and when they go [here] the guns are silent," Fawzi said. "We have credible reports that when they leave, the exchanges start again, that these people who approach the observers may be approached by the Syrian security forces or the Syrian army or even worse, perhaps killed and this is totally unacceptable," Fawzi added. UN 'brought death' Manhal, an activist in Hama, told Al Jazeera that the visit of the observers to the central city's neighbourhood of Arbaeen on Sunday was followed by a brutal crackdown by government forces the next morning. "UN monitors brought death with them," Manhal said. The dead were either killed by shelling or by gunfire, he said, adding that women and elderly were among those killed. "Old men who tried to flee were targeted by snipers. Many homes were destroyed, many people arrested." Manhal said Arbaeen had seen large anti-government protests in the past. Asked whether there were opposition fighters in the area, he said: "There might be, but today's shelling was targeted to kill, not to arrest. At least 50 people were killed in the city that day, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an opposition activist network. On Tuesday,  activists said that five people were killed in Douma and dozens of others wounded, as regime forces shelled the town, just a day after to the area by UN monitors. The LCC said the city was enduring "the most brutal shelling since the protest movement began [in March 2011]". "Douma is suffering a humanitarian disaster... It is extremely difficult to treat the wounded and there is a severe shortage of medical supplies," the group said in a statement. Car bomb blast Meanwhile, in central the capital, State TV reported that three people were wounded when the car bomb that went off in the Marjeh district, blaming an "armed terrorist group". "An armed terrorist group detonated the car bomb near the Yelbugha complex in Marjeh, wounding three people and causing damage to nearby buildings," state-media said. State news agency SANA said the bomb was placed under the car of an unsuspecting man, who was among those hurt. UN monitors have toured several protest hubs since their arrival in the country earlier this month, including the battered city of Homs, where two of them set up base at the weekend. During their visits, they have been greeted by thousands of protesters demanding the removal of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Despite scepticism over the ability of the UN mission to halt violence, UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday gave the go-ahead for the deployment of 300 ceasefire monitors from next week. Ban insisted that the Assad government ensure the protection of the unarmed observers and allow them to travel freely throughout the country. Obama announced additions to the pile of US sanctions already faced by the two governments as part of a wider effort to crack down on human rights abuses, atrocities and genocide. The measures will hit the two governments but also companies that help create systems that track or monitor their people for killing, torture or other abuses and prevent individuals involved from entering the United States. and..... http://www.debka.com/article/21939/ Hungry Syrian soldiers desert Golan defenses, prowl for food DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 23, 2012, 7:10 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags:  Syrian army   Golan   Syrian uprising  Blast at Syrian Sahm al-Jolan (Golan) The wretched plight of the troops manning Syrian defense divisions defending the Golan border and Mt. Hermon was clearly visible from lookout points on the Israeli side in the last two days, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. The regular water and food supplies to their bases, the backbone of Syria’s defense lines against Israel, were stopped and redirected to the units fighting anti-Assad rebels in other parts of the country. Large groups of armed soldiers have gone AWOL to hunt for food. For the first time in years, some have approached the border fence. They don’t ask Israeli soldiers for food, but parcels thrown across the fence vanish in a trice. According to our sources, the 5th Division posted in the Golan town of Quneitra has suffered the largest number of desertions, estimated at more than 1,500 officers and men, around 15 percent of the full complement. But hundreds of dropouts occur daily from the 15th, 9th and 7th Divisions stationed in central and southern Golan. The district commands have meanwhile lost control of the Syrian-Israeli border deployment. Military facilities are deserted with no one to guard against trespassers. Gangs, local and from across Syria’s eastern borders with Jordan and Iraq, were quick to realize the bases are unguarded and have begun stripping them of equipment and looting everything they can lay hands on.  These gangs are working stealthily so as not to drawing the attention of Assad’s security forces which might stop the looting. But they are most likely being used by Assad’s Sunni enemies in Iraq and Jordan as vehicles to plant terrorist cells inside Syria for attacking military targets. DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources disclose this is what happened at the Golan village of Sahm al-Jolan near Quneitra Friday, April 20 when a large (100 kilo) bomb blew up as a Syrian military convoy was passing through. At least 10 soldiers were killed and 35 injured. The Syrian authorities stated that a remote-controlled explosive device blew up against a bus carrying soldiers. It is believed that a Jordanian Sunni terrorist band was responsible.  That day too, five Syrian soldiers were killed in another attack in the southern Syrian town of Karak near the flashpoint town of Deraa.