Syria awaits observers

Turkey, once a close ally of Syria, has employed unusually blunt language on Thursday to condemn what it called the Syrian leadership's "policies of oppression against its own people, which are turning [Syria] into a bloodbath."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry statement followed reports of killings in northwestern Syria on Tuesday in the run-up to Thursday's arrival of an advance team from the Arab League.

Its task is to prepare logistics for a 200-member team of Arab civilian and military observers. The Syrian opposition has said the Arab League mission is a mere "ploy" to delay potential UN Security Council intervention. That's been denied by the government.

Opposition: Residents killed in valley

The Syrian opposition umbrella group the Syrian National Council has charged that forces of the Assad regime killed 250 people over 48 hours. Activists said troops had surrounded residents and dissenters in a valley just outside the village of Kfar Owaid, in Idlib province, close to the border with Turkey on Tuesday, and unleashed shelling, rockets and heavy gunfire, killing more than 100 people. In addition 70 army defectors were killed near the city of Idlib, the council said.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported further attacks by the military on towns and villages since then, as well as rebel resistance which had lead to the deaths of members of the security forces.

Events in Syria are hard to verify because its authorities ban most independent reporting, including photo coverage.

Killings also denounced by France and USA

Turkey's condemnation follows French and US denunciations of Assad's regime over the reported killings. Paris said everything must be done to stop a "murderous spiral." The Obama administration accused Assad's government of "mowing down" its people.

The observer mission is part of an Arab League agreement initially endorsed by Damascus on November 2 and finalized on Monday after weeks of indecision. It calls for a halt to violence, the release of detainees, the withdrawal of Syria's military from towns and residential districts, and dialogue with the opposition.

The Syrian foreign ministry said the final document concluded on Monday refers to violence on "all sides."

Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said he expected the observers to vindicate Damascus's claim that the unrest had been caused by "armed terrorist groups," and not peaceful protestors as maintained by rights organizations and Western powers.

Syrian opposition, rights groups skeptical

A Syrian opposition spokesman, Omar Edelbi, described the observer mission as "another attempt by the regime to "bypass the Arab initiative."

The Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitson, said the League needed to show that its observers were independent, in order to dispel "well-founded fears of yet another Syrian stalling tactic." Human Rights Watch called on Damascus to grant observers full access to areas of tension.

Syrian pro-democracy activists have reportedly called for nationwide protests on Friday to express criticism of the observer mission. On a Facebook page, they said the mission ran the risk of giving Damascus "a license to kill."

The mission's leader, veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said the team's numbers could swell to a maximum of 200 in the coming days.

Sign of hope

The head of Syrian Observatory said, however, the Arab League mission could turn out to be a sign of hope. "If the regime applies all the clause of the agreement, democracy will be installed in Syria very soon, because the people will descend on the streets en masse."

President Assad is from Syria's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Alawites hold many senior posts in the army which he has deployed to deal with mainly Sunni Muslim protests. Protests have increasingly given way to armed confrontations, often led by army deserters. The United Nations estimates that more than 5,000 people have been killed since protests broke out in March.

Author: Ian P. Johnson (AFP, Reuters, AP)
Editor: Michael Lawton