Neighbours tell Syria: Stop the bloodshed

Syria's neighbours called on Wednesday for urgent action to protect civilians from the regime's brutal crackdown on protesters as the diplomatic vice tightened on President Bashar al-Assad. After a raid by army defectors on an intelligence base highlighted the scale of the challenge at home to Assad's 11-year rule, Arab foreign ministers said Damascus would be frozen out of the region unless it halted the bloodshed. And France announced it was recalling its ambassador to Syria after its diplomatic missions there were attacked by Assad's supporters. While the foreign ministers in Rabat did not immediately spell out the consequences for Syria if the killing continued, their meeting was intended to signal that patience had now run out. Syria was suspended by the 22-nation bloc at the weekend and it refused to turn up at the meeting in Morocco, which was also attended by Turkey, its northern neighbour. In a statement issued after the Turkish-Arab cooperation forum, the ministers declared they were "against all foreign intervention" but said it was time for urgent measures. "The forum declares that it is necessary to stop the bloodshed and to spare Syrian citizens from new acts of violence and killing, and demands that urgent measures are taken to ensure the protection of civilians," a statement said. "Ministers also stressed the importance of Syria's stability and unity and the need to find a resolution to the crisis without any foreign intervention," it added. The Arab ministers were to hold another meeting later to discuss further measures against Syria after its suspension for failing to implement an Arab peace deal. "Everything must be done to stop the ongoing bloodshed in Syria," Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi told reporters ahead of the meeting. Arabi said he hoped Arab moves to send observers to Syria would bear fruit within days. But he reiterated that no observers would be sent before a clear agreement is signed between the Arab League and Damascus. The pan-Arab body had agreed to send 500 members of human rights groups, media representatives and military observers to Syria, which said it would welcome them to see the situation on the ground and help implement the peace deal. As the ministers met in Rabat, pro-Assad protesters pelted the Moroccan embassy in Damascus with eggs and stones. Ambassador Mohammed Khassasi told AFP that between 100 and 150 demonstrators had attacked the building and stripped it of its flag. Turkey, once a close ally of Syria, has become increasingly outspoken in its criticism of Assad's regime since the Syrian uprising began. "The cost for the Syrian administration of not fulfilling the promises it made to the Arab League is its isolation in the Arab world as well," Ahmet Davutoglu told his Arab counterparts. "It is not possible for any administration to win the fight against its own people," he added. The unprecedented movement against Assad's rule has been spearheaded by peaceful demonstrators but, in recent months, deserters have organised themselves into a Free Syrian Army that has inflicted growing losses on the regular armed forces. The attack on the intelligence base near Damascus was one of its most spectacular attacks to date. "The Free Army struck with rockets and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) the headquarters of air force intelligence which is located at the entrance of Damascus," said the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, adding smoke was rising from the area. There was no immediate word on casualties. The activists, who illustrated the three-pronged attack in a plan attached to their statement, said prisoners held at the intelligence branch "were well" but the operation failed to secure their release. The Free Syrian Army announced it was forming a temporary military council to spearhead the fight to oust Assad's regime. The council aims to "bring down the current regime, protect Syrian civilians from its oppression, protect private and public property and prevent chaos and acts of revenge when it falls," it said in a statement received in Nicosia. Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad, who defected from the regular army to form the Syrian Free Army in July, will chair the council. In Hama, a flashpoint central province, security forces shot dead three army defectors and a civilian in the rural town of Keferzita, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It added that eight troops were killed and dozens other wounded when defectors attacked a military checkpoint in Keferzita. In Homs, another protest city further south, four civilians were killed by gunfire coming from a checkpoint, added the Britain-based watchdog, which also reported the deaths of a missing person and of a civilian who succumbed to wounds. In the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the revolt, security forces killed a civilian at a checkpoint in the town of Hara, the Observatory added.