Violence in Syria and at its borders continued to rage Monday on the eve of a cease-fire that analysts said they doubted would be agreed to by President Bashar Assad.
“The Syrian government is in a race against time to basically crush the armed wing of the uprising and have the upper hand in any political negotiations,” said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center, London School of Economics.
“The Assad regime and the rebels have locked themselves into a protracted and bloody conflict. Both camps are planning for the long term,” he said.
Syrian forces fired across the border into a refugee camp in Turkey, wounding five people, authorities said. The soldiers were firing at rebels who tried to escape after ambushing a military checkpoint, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On the border with Lebanon, a cameraman for Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV station was killed by shots fired from Syria, the station said.
Turkey shelters thousands of refugees fleeing Assad’s military, which has killed 9,000 people since March 2011 in an attempt to put down an uprising, according to the United Nations.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry demanded Syria stop shooting across the border, saying that the refugees “are under the full protection of Turkey.”
Fighting reported in half of Syria’s provinces as ceasefire deadline nears
McClatchy Newspapers, By David Enders, April 9
Beirut — Syrian soldiers battled anti-government rebels in half of the country’s 14 provinces on Monday, three days before a United Nations-backed ceasefire is to take effect, anti-government activists said. More than 100 people were killed across the country Monday, according to the activists.
A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, reached by phone in Damascus, said the surge in violence in recent days had worsened conditions for tens of thousands of civilians who are in desperate need of safe shelter and food.
“Humanitarian needs are growing because of the unrest,” said the spokeswoman, Rabab al Rifai.
Activists in the central Syrian city of Hama reported 29 civilians killed by shelling in Latemneh, a village where activists reported more than 70 people were killed on Saturday. Twenty-five of the victims in Latemneh on Monday were woman and children, activists said.