Syrians close up shop to seek slayings’ halt

Car bomb kills 15 as fighting rages on

— As Syrian government forces pressed their counteroffensive on the outskirts of Damascus and a car bomb exploded in the central city of Homs, merchants around the country closed their shops over the weekend in an attempt to keep the nonviolent protest movement alive, despite the intense fighting.

INTERACTIVE

Uprising in Syria

On Saturday, usually a busy shopping day, rows of shops were closed in towns north and south of Damascus, the capital; in the southern city of Daraa; in Hama in the north; and along major streets in Raqqa, an eastern city, video uploaded on the Web by government opponents showed.

The protest took place despite more than two days of Internet failures that slowed the spread of the call for action. Called the “Strike of Pride,” it was announced on Facebook and other social-media sites beginning a week ago, as well as by activists who dropped leaflets and spray-painted the news on walls.

An organizer wrote in one announcement that although some have questioned the effectiveness of the nonviolent struggle, “I think it can express the pain of the entire Syrian people.”

Yet violence continued, with a car bomb exploding in Homs, killing 15 people and injuring 24, according to the government news agency, SANA.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Activists and residents said the car bombing took place in the Malaab neighborhood, which was considered one of the few safe places to go outside and to shop.

Residents had turned the area into an outdoor market, and there was a supermarket near the bomb site. Residents said civilians were injured. Video of the scene showed men shouting and taking in a fire extinguisher as thick black smoke and flames billowed from a car on a narrow street lined with apartment buildings and bushes.

In a village just outside Homs, two other people were killed by artillery shelling, including a baby girl, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain based activist group.

Homs has been a frequent battleground in the 20-month rebellion aimed at toppling Bashar Assad.

The government news agency claimed that on the outskirts of Homs, the Syrian army killed scores of rebels in an attack on their hideouts.

Bombings such as the one in Homs have divided the anti-government movement since Syria’s uprising morphed into a civil war that has killed an estimated 40,000 people. The increase in attacks as part of the civil war also has raised concerns that Islamist extremist groups are taking a larger role on the side of the rebels.

What began as a peaceful protest movement turned violent after the government fired on unarmed demonstrators. Some fighters said they carry weapons to protect protesters; army defections have followed suit; and as jihadi groups have taken a more prominent role in the conflict, car bombs have proliferated.

At first they targeted government buildings. Bombings have increased in residential areas. Now, they appear to target members of minority sects who have been less involved in the Sunni-led uprising - such as in Jaramana, south of Damascus, last week, and last month in Mezze 86, which is home to many military families and Alawites.

The fighting - and its increasingly sectarian cast - has divided the activists who spearheaded the early civil disobedience.

Last month, a well-known opposition activist, Rima Dali, was arrested with several friends after they stood in the central old market of Damascus wearing wedding dresses and holding banners that called for an end to the violence and declared that Syria belonged to all Syrians. The call to join this weekend’s protest urged Syrians to unite against “the killing machine” of the government and to show the unity of “those seeking to stop the killing and destruction.” Online videos provided scattered evidence of the shop closings, so it was hard to gauge their scope. In several towns, the streets were shown to be full of people out for Saturday strolls, and a few street stalls sold kerosene and other items despite the closings. In other areas, shopping districts were nearly abandoned.

In Hama, block after block of shops were closed behind corrugated metal gates. On wide streets, in narrow alleys and in a covered market, it was so quiet that the footsteps of the videographer echoed off the walls, and birds could be heard. Another video showed men in camouflage uniforms standing outside shops as gunshots echoed nearby; a description posted online said the men were “regime thugs” breaking the locks of shops to end the strike, a tactic that pro-government militias have used before.

On Sunday, government forces continued to attack rebels, supported by helicopter gunships and airstrikes to the south and east of the capital in an apparent effort to push back rebels who had made gains in the area in recent days.

The Observatory said fighter jets struck twice in the suburb of Daraya as regime artillery pounded other districts just south of Damascus.

The Syrian air force also launched airstrikes on the northern city of Aleppo, some cities in the northern province of Idlib and the Mediterranean city of Latakia, the Observatory said. The group relies on reports from activists on the ground.

“The Syrian Army has opened since Thursday morning the gates of hell to all those who even consider getting close to Damascus or of attacking the capital,” the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan reported, according to Agence France-Presse.

As airstrikes shook the strongly anti-government southern suburb of Daraya, the newspaper added, “Daraya will be secured in the coming hours.”

The Damascus suburbs have been opposition strongholds since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. In the past weeks, the army has pressed an offensive to regain lost territory near the capital, including two air bases. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there was also ongoing fighting in towns near the Damascus International Airport on the southern edge of the city. The towns include Aqraba, Beit Saham and Yalda.

The road to the airport from Damascus was closed Thursday because of heavy fighting, but authorities reopened it after troops secured the area, activists said. The Information Ministry said Saturday that the airport was operating normally and that the road leading to the facility is “totally secure.”

On Sunday, EgyptAir Chief Executive Roshdy Zakaria said the country’s national carrier will resume flights to Damascus and Aleppo after a three-day suspension because of poor security on the roads around the two airports.

While fighting has intensified nationwide in the past weeks, members of the new Syrian opposition leadership coalition held talks in Egypt on a transitional government.

The Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces was established earlier this month in Qatar under pressure from the United States for a stronger, more united opposition body to serve as a counterweight to the more extremist forces that have joined the fight against Assad’s regime - some of them foreign jihadists.

The coalition members said they have agreed on the framework of a transitional government with 10 ministers. Walid Albunni, the coalition’s spokesman, said its members will speed up the decision making process and name the prime minister in the coming days to keep up with developments on the ground.

“We have to work as fast as possible to be ready for the downfall of the regime,” Albunni said Saturday at the end of a three-day meeting in Cairo, where the opposition body is based.

Albunni said the coalition could support a United Nations peacekeeping force in Syria, but only after Assad is toppled.

“Anything can happen after all those who have stained their hands with blood of people are gone,” Albunni said.

Information for this article was contributed by Anne Barnard, Hania Mourtada and Hala Droubi of The New York Times and by Barbara Surk and Aya Batrawy of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/03/2012

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