UN weighs future of mission in Syria

DAMASCUS: The UN Security Council was to examine the future of its observer mission in violence-wracked Syria yesterday as civilians remained pinned down by regime shelling of rebel strongholds.
The mission’s leader Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, whose 300 unarmed monitors suspended operations on Saturday because of escalating bloodshed, was to brief the Security Council.
More than 3,300 people have been killed in violence across Syria since the observers were deployed in the strife-torn country in mid-April. Their 90-day initial mandate runs out on July 20.
With civilians trapped by regime shelling of rebel bastions such as the central city of Homs, Mood has urged the government and opposition to let “women, children, the elderly and the injured to leave conflict zones.”
And UN rights chief Navi Pillay has demanded a halt to government bombardment of populated areas. “Such actions amount to crimes against humanity and possible war crimes,” Pillay told the UN Human Rights Council.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 1,000 families are stranded in Homs, while the opposition Syrian National Council says Homs is under siege by thousands of soldiers and pro-regime militiamen.
They also urged “all those who can press the armed groups not to target innocent civilians” accusing the gunmen of using the civilians as “human shields.”
It said one soldier was killed and reported “intermittent shelling” of several neighborhoods of the flashpoint city, while a civilian was shot dead overnight in the northern city of Aleppo during an anti-regime demonstration.
The Britain-based watchdog also reported similar clashes in the Idlib region near the border with Turkey where the army was using tankfire.
Government troops shelled the northern Damascus suburb of Douma, killing five people, and pounded the Qalamun district of the province, the watchdog said, as at least 14 people were killed across Syria yesterday.
US President Barack Obama and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday called for an “immediate cessation of all violence.”
“In order to stop the bloodshed in Syria, we call for an immediate cessation of all violence,” the two leaders said in a statement after meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Putin told reporters that he and Obama had found “many common points” on the 15-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad that monitors say has cost more than 14,400 lives.
Moscow news reports, meanwhile, said Russia is preparing to send two amphibious assault ships and marines to the Syrian port of Tartus where Russia has a naval base to ensure the safety of its nationals,
In another development, a Russian ship carrying attack helicopters and missiles destined for Syria was halted off the Scottish coast after its British insurer withdrew cover for the vessel.
Insurer Standard Club said it had canceled insurance for the MV Alaed, owned by Femco, a Russian cargo line.