BEIRUT — In the first attack to target a campaign event, a mortar shell slammed into a tent packed with supporters of President Bashar Assad, killing 39 people and wounding 205, Syrian state TV said Friday.
Opposition activists earlier said at least 21 people were killed. Conflicting casualty tolls are common in Syria, where the security situation makes it nearly impossible to verify reports.
Assad is widely expected to win a third, seven-year mandate in the June 3 vote, but the West and opposition activists have criticized it as a farce because it is taking place despite a raging civil war.
The 49-year-old president has not made a public appearance in more than a month and was not at the gathering struck by the mortar round late Thursday in Daraa. But campaigning has begun in earnest, with supporters waving his pictures and Syrian flags during daily demonstrations in the capital, Damascus, the coastal city of Latakia and other government-held areas.
Many gatherings have been held in so-called election tents where nationalistic songs are played and supporters mingle.
Ahmad Masalma, an opposition activist in Daraa, said six such tents — festooned with posters of Assad and Syrian flags — have been set up in the past week in the city, which holds special significance as the birthplace of the uprising against his rule in March 2011.
Masalma criticized the celebratory mood in the tents.
“They have loud music and Dabka,” he said, referring to a traditional foot-stomping dance. “It’s very provocative and an insult to the blood of martyrs.”
He and another activist who identified himself only by his first name, Ahmad, said rebels from a faction of the Free Syrian Army umbrella group fired a single mortar shell at the tent in a government-held area after repeatedly warning civilians to stay away. Daraa is divided into a rebel-held and a government-held sector.
Qaisar Habib, an opposition activist close to the Nusra Front, Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate, confirmed the strike and said the tent had been erected two weeks ago in a government-controlled part of the city. While acknowledging there were civilians in the area, he said the tent was a “legitimate target” because those running the election were mostly pro-government militiamen.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists on the ground for its reports, said 21 people, including 11 civilians, were killed.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the mortar attack and reiterated his opposition to the indiscriminate use of any weapons by any party against civilians.
Daraa’s Gov. Khaled al-Hannus described the attack as a “massacre” and “a crime by terrorists meant to prevent Syrians from taking part in the presidential elections.”
Speaking on Syrian TV, he vowed Syrians will not be deterred and insisted that “every honorable citizen” in Daraa will vote for Assad.
Assad’s family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years. Although this year’s vote will be the first time the family has faced challengers, a recently passed election law makes it impossible for those leading the revolt against Assad to compete.
Rebels trying to overthrow Assad frequently fire mortar shells into Syria’s major cities, including Damascus, from opposition-held suburbs.
But Thursday’s attack was the first to target an election event, raising security concerns for those planning to vote.
Assad was last seen in public on April 20 when Syrian state television broadcast images of him visiting the ancient Christian village of Maaloula, north of Damascus, after government forces recaptured the village.
On Thursday, Syrian tanks backed by air power rolled into the grounds of a sprawling prison in the northern city of Aleppo, breaking a year-long rebel siege and allowing Assad’s forces to close in on a nearby rebel command center.
In a statement Friday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said “a number of prisoners and detainees, in particular 53 political detainees, whose identity is known [to the U.N.] are at imminent risk.”
More than 160,000 people have been killed in the fighting in Syria as the revolt became a civil war that has forced millions to flee their homes and turned once-prosperous cities into rubble-strewn war zones.
Information for this article was contributed by Barbara Surk and Albert Aji of The Associated Press and Ben Hubbard and staff members of The New York Times.
A Section on 05/24/2014