25 reported killed in Assad crackdown in northern Syria

BEIRUT // The death toll in a government security crackdown in a northern Syrian town rose to 25 yesterday, a human rights group said, and opposition figures said any dialogue now with President Bashar al Assad's regime would be a joke.

Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths in the town of Jisr al Shughour included four policemen. The operation is part of a crackdown that began on Saturday and continued yesterday.

Human rights groups say more than 1,200 people have died in the brutal crackdown against anti-government protesters since March. Mr al Assad has coupled military operations with symbolic overtures toward the opposition, including a general amnesty and a call for national dialogue.

At a meeting of Syria's mostly expatriate opposition in Brussels, Obeda Nahas, one of the representatives chosen at a two-day Conference of the National Coalition to Support the Syrian Revolution, said any opposition figures who talked to the regime right now would not be taken seriously by the Syrian people.

"We can't sit at the table and have some killers with us at the table," he said at a news conference.

Mr Nahas and other representatives renewed calls on foreign governments and the United Nations to increase political and legal pressure on the Assad government.

"We want more pressure on this regime because it doesn't seem to be listening to its own people," he told reporters.

Ausama Monajed, another participant, said opposition figures were working to put together legal cases against the Assad regime in federal courts in the US, several European courts and the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In Syria, Mr Abdul-Rahman and other activists said the Syrian military pulled back tanks from the outskirts of the tense central city of Hama and in southern villages.

A resident of the city, where least 65 anti-government protesters were killed on Friday, said the tanks retreated from the outskirts of Hama.

He said the situation in Hama remained "very tense". Residents were conducting a general strike in memory of those previously killed when security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters on Friday.

"Most of the shops here are closed, people are grieving and worried," he said by telephone on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The deaths in Hama and reports of tanks headed there had caused new alarm. The city rose up against Mr al Assad's father in 1982, only to be crushed in a three-week bombing campaign that killed thousands. Memories of those days are still raw.

Activists yesterday also said the army withdrew from the villages of Dael and Hirak near the city of Daraa where the uprising against Mr al Assad's regime began in mid-March.

The military had been conducting military operations in the area for days.

The Local Coordination Committees, which helps organise and document the protests calling for an end to the regime, said a total of 18 people died in Hirak and 12 in Dael since the start of the operations.

The Syrian government has severely restricted the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify events there.

Details of the operations in Jisr al Shughour were also sketchy and attempts to reach residents of the town were unsuccessful, possibly because communications have been cut.

The state-run news agency Sana said yesterday four policemen were killed and more than 20 wounded in the area when "armed terrorist" groups attacked government buildings and police stations.

It said the groups have been launching attacks against government buildings since Saturday, setting fire to a number of public and private buildings, cutting off roads and intimidating residents.

* Associated Press