Embassy attacked as Syrian violence spreads

The fighting and other violence around the nation claimed at least five lives, activists said.

For the first time, an act of violent protest against President Bashar Assad’s regime spilled across the border into Jordan, where about a dozen Syrians attacked their embassy in the capital, Amman, wounding at least two diplomats and four other consulate employees.

The nine-month-old uprising against Syria’s authoritarian President Bashar Assad has grown increasingly violent in recent months as once-peaceful protesters take up arms and rebel soldiers joining the uprising fight back against the army. The UN says more than 4,000 people have been killed since March.

Opposition activists called for a general strike starting yesterday to add to the pressure on the government to stop its bloody crackdown. Assad has refused to buckle under Arab and international pressure to step down and has shown no signs of easing his crackdown, which has included assaults by the military on unarmed protesters.

Now, fighting between loyalist forces and defectors calling themselves the Free Syrian Army threatens to push the confrontation into civil war.

In one of yesterday’s clashes, which took place before dawn in the north-western town of Kfar Takharim, two of the military’s armoured vehicles were set ablaze, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Three other vehicles were burned in another clash near the southern village of Busra al-Harir, the group said. Similar battles took place in several other parts of the south, said the Observatory and another activist group called the Local Co-ordination Committees.

The Observatory said two people were killed in the clash with defectors in Kfar Takharim. Two other people who went missing days ago were tortured to death in the central province of Homs, and one person was shot at a checkpoint in the southern province of Daraa, the group said.

The LCC put yesterday’s death toll at nine.

In Jordan, the Syrian Embassy said a group of protesters linked to the unrest at home entered the mission claiming they had paperwork to finish and attacked the consul, another diplomat, a security guard and several other staff members.

An embassy statement said its guards arrested one of the attackers, identified as Syrian refugee Ahmed al-Shureiqi. It said Jordanian police arrested eight others, all Syrians allegedly involved in the attack.

The Syrian opposition called for the general strike, saying it will go on until the regime pulls the army out of cities and releases detainees.

The LCC said security forces were breaking into shops closed for the strike in an attempt to force them to open.

The latest violence came a day after the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that France was “deeply concerned” about the situation in Syria and warned Syrian authorities that they will be held responsible for any action against the population.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated yesterday to demand President Ali Abdullah Saleh face trial for his regime’s deadly crackdown on months of protests.

Yesterday’s rallies were in the capital, Sanaa, and other cities.

After months of pressure, Saleh signed a deal last month to step down as president in exchange for immunity from prosecution. New presidential elections are set for February 21.

The deal has failed to end the protests, which began last February with calls for his removal. Protesters also rejected a unity government formed over the weekend that includes some ministers from Saleh’s administration.