Syria faces ‘day of rage’, EU discusses sanctions against Syrian regime. Pro- and ant-government supporters rally in Yemen. Pro-Gaddafi forces attack Tunisian town of Dehiba
This article titled “Syria, Libya and Middle East unrest – live coverage” was written by Mark Tran, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 29th April 2011 09.43 UTC
12.03pm – Syria: Reports are coming in of thousands of people demonstrating in Kurdish regions of eastern Syria in solidarity with the southern city of Deraa, which has been in lockdown for days. There are also reports of large demonstrations in the Damascus suburb of Saqba amid chants of “overthrow the regime”.
11.45am – Syria: President Bashar al-Assad’s government has deployed forces in strength in anticipation of protests after Friday prayers. Syrian Republican Guard trucks equipped with machine guns and carrying soldiers in combat gear patrolled the circular road around Damascus ahead of prayers on Friday, a witness told Reuters. Two other witnesses said various security units and secret police manned checkpoints around Damascus, cutting off the city from the suburbs and rural regions, as telecommunications and electricity were cut off from urban centres and towns that had defied warnings not to hold protests.
11.36am – Libya: Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, has accused the Gaddafi regime of passing out tablets of Viagra to his front line troops to help them rape women. Rice made the allegation in a closed-door meeting of the security council, Colum Lynch reports on Turtle Bay, on the Foreign Policy website. Rice made the allegation after facing criticism from council members that the Western-backed coalition has effectively sided with Libya’s rebels in the country’s ongoing civil war. China, Russia, India and other have expressed concern that the Nato-backed military coalition has exceeded its mandate to protect civilians, and had become a party to the country’s conflict… UN council diplomats said that Rice provided no evidence to support her claim, which appeared earlier this week in the British tabloid, the Daily Mail. Human rights advocates say the allegation first surfaced publicly last month when a doctor in Ajdabiya, Suleiman Refadi, claimed in an interview with Al Jazeera English that Qaddafi’s force’s had received packets of Viagra and condoms as part of a campaign of sexual violence. “I have seen Viagra, I have seen condoms,” Refadi told Al Jazeera.
Save the Children has alleged that Libyan children as young as eight have suffered sexual assaults, including rape, amid the worsening conflict across the country.
11.27am – Syria: Syria is also facing pressure from the UN’s nuclear watchdog. The Associated Press reports that the IAEA is setting the stage for UN security council action against Syria for allegedly trying to build a secret nuclear reactor. On Thursday the head of the IAEA said for the first time that a target destroyed by Israeli warplanes in Syria in 2007 was a covert nuclear site. The agency later retracted the statement, but diplomats say it is working on an assessment that will judge the destroyed building a likely reactor.
11.17am – Libya: The Guardian’s Xan Rice, has interviewed the leader of the rebellion in Misrata, the only rebel-held city in western Libya. The rebel leader made an urgent plea to the international community for weapons that would allow his fighters not just to defend the besieged city, but to topple the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Khalifa al-Zwawi, an appeal court judge who heads Misrata’s transitional council, said that after weeks of fierce fighting, rebel forces would eject the last of Gaddafi’s troops from the city “very soon”. “Once we have done that our target is to eliminate the Gaddafi regime,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “We want to go to Tripoli and set it free, and Libya free. We want to move from defence to attack.” Until now, the rebels in Misrata have relied solely on small arms and weapons captured from loyalist troops, or sent by sea from Benghazi, the rebel capital in the east. But Zwawi said help was required if his forces were to go on the offensive. “The most important thing for us now is arms. We need weapons that are suitable to take on Gaddafi. As soon as our freedom fighters reach people in other cities they will join our revolt,” he said.
11.08am – Syria: The Human Rights Council, which is holding a special session in Geneva, is expected to call for a fact-finding mission to look into violations committed by Syrian forces and also suggest that Syria should not seek membership in the forum next month, Reuters is reporting. “The council will be quite divided, but we should get a vote in favour of the text,” a western diplomat told Reuters. “It will be a tough slog today. But the key thing is getting a result,” said another. In an opening speech, Kyung-wha Kang, UN deputy high commissioner for human rights, said Syrian tanks were shelling densely populated areas and entire towns were under siege. “There have been reports of snipers firing on persons attempting to assist the injured or remove dead bodies from public areas,” she said. There is “a widespread, persistent and gross disregard for basic human rights by the Syrian military and security forces,” she said, speaking on behalf of the UN human rights office.
On the divided Arab response. “There will be an Arab League statement. But it would be a lie to say there is a consensus of positions,” a Geneva-based Arab diplomat told Reuters. “To avoid speaking in favour of Syria, most (Arab) delegations will not take the floor.” “The Arab group is a bit embarrassed. During the Libyan affair we were all unified and integrated the international community’s consensus,” he said, adding that censuring Syria could set off a chain reaction. “Do this and a Pandora’s Box will open. Bahrain is also a member and Gulf countries are fully behind Bahrain,” he said.
11.00am – Libya: My colleague, Harriet Sherwood, who is in Tripoli, has sent an update on the fighting on the border with Tunisia. Forces loyal to Gaddafi have retaken a border crossing between Libya and Tunisia close the Western Mountains region, which has been the scene of fierce fighting over recent weeks. Rebel fighters gained control of the Wazin-Dehiba border post last week. But it fell in an onslaught by regime troops, in which missiles were fired across the border into Tunisia, on Thursday. The Tunisian news agency, TAP, quoted witnesses saying Libyan refugees on the Tunisian side of the border had been killed and wounded. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 30,000 Libyans have fled the area in recent weeks. The region is largely populated by Berbers, who have suffered decades of repression under the Gaddafi regime.
10.30am: Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of unrest in the Middle East, where major shows of strength are expected in Syria and Yemen. • In Syria, activists have called for a “Friday of rage” following Muslim prayers, to commemorate the death of over 100 people killed by security forces exactly a week ago. As the Assad regime braces itself for more protests, international diplomatic pressure is mounting. The UN’s top human rights body is holding a special session in Geneva to consider possible abuses in Syria. Meanwhile, EU governments are meeting in Brussels are to discuss sanctions on the Syrian leadership for the first time. • In Yemen, opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh have called for rallies across the country after Friday prayers to demand his exit, two days after plainclothes gunmen shot dead 12 demonstrators in the capital. Funerals of the 12 protesters killed on Wednesday were expected to draw big crowds in Sana’a. • There are reports of clashes between Tunisian troops and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi inside the Tunisian border town of Dehiba. Residents say there was heavy fighting in the centre of the town, which is near a border crossing point into Libya. This would be the first time that fighting in Libya has spilled across the border to Tunisia. • The death toll in one of Morocco’s worst terrorist attacks has risen to 16. The MAP news agency said two people died of injuries in the hospital after Thursday’s explosion in a tourist cafe in Marrakech, bringing the number of dead from 14 to 16. At least 11 of those killed were foreigners, and at least 20 people were injured.
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