Bürgerkrieg in Syrien
10.03.2012 um 10:36Nach ein paar Tagen vergleichbarer Ruhe und jeweils nur einigen dutzend Toten startet die syrische Armee offensichtlich die nächste Grossoffensive, dieses Mal trifft es Idlib an der türkischen Grenze. Könnte nun wirklich unangenehm werden für den nördlichen Nachbarn...http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/10/199728.html
4 min 33 sec ago - Syriahttp://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Syria (Archiv-Version vom 10.03.2012)
The Syrian army has launched an assault on the city of Idlib since 6am with tanks, artillery and mortar fire. Helicopters are hovering in the sky. Tanks are at the southwestern edge of the ring road, targeting the city from there.
By Al Arabiya with agencies
Syrian troops heavily shelled the northwestern protest city of Idlib early Saturday, in an apparent prelude to a ground assault just hours before the scheduled arrival of international peace envoy Kofi Annan, a watchdog said.
“It’s the heaviest bombardment since troop reinforcements were sent to Idlib earlier this week,” the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
“It’s the prelude to the launch of a ground offensive.”
Annan, former U.N. chief, was headed for crux talks in Damascus on Saturday with the hopes of the world pinned on his bid to prevent a nearly year-old uprising spiraling into all-out civil war.
After another 70 civilians were killed on Friday in a conflict that human rights watchdogs say has cost more than 8,500 lives since March last year, Annan was due to holds talks with President Bashar al-Assad on his first visit since his appointment as international envoy on the conflict.