| New York Times | - |
WASHINGTON - The State Department accused the Syrian government on Wednesday of retaliating against the Syrian opposition's representatives to the Geneva peace talks by arresting their family members.
Kerry Sees Syrian Retaliation Against Rivals in Talks
WASHINGTON
— The State Department accused the Syrian government on Wednesday of
retaliating against the Syrian opposition’s representatives to the
Geneva peace talks by arresting their family members.
There
have been two rounds of unproductive talks in Geneva between the Syrian
opposition and a delegation from the Syrian government, which is led by
President Bashar al-Assad.
Secretary of State John Kerry has blamed
the Assad government for the deadlock in the talks and said that it had
undermined them by putting opposition delegates on a terrorist list and
seizing their assets. On Wednesday, the State Department asserted that
the Syrian government had also been detaining some of the delegates’
relatives.
“The
United States is outraged by reports that the Assad regime has arrested
family members of the Syrian Opposition Coalition delegation to the
Geneva II peace talks, designated delegates as terrorists and seized
delegates’ assets,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in
a statement.
“We
call on the regime to immediately and unconditionally release all those
unfairly arrested, including Mahmoud Sabra, brother of Geneva
delegation member Mohammed Sabra,” she added. According to a statement issued last week by the Syrian opposition, Mohammed Sabra said his brother had been detained at a checkpoint in the town of Jaramana.
In
Syria on Wednesday, government forces killed scores of rebels in an
ambush east of Damascus, opposition activists and the government said,
dealing a major blow to efforts by rebels to open a supply line to a
besieged area. The exact toll remained unclear, with the government
claiming it had killed more than 175 rebels, many of them non-Syrian
jihadists, and an opposition activist in the area saying more than 40
fighters were killed, with dozens more unaccounted for.
Video|3:26
Credit Ahmad Aboud/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The Syrian Opposition, Explained
There are believed to be hundreds, if not
thousands, of groups fighting in Syria. These opposition groups are
fighting the Assad regime, but recently turned on each other with
increased ferocity.
For
months, government forces have been besieging a number of rebel-held
areas near Damascus, causing fuel and food shortages intended to weaken
the rebels. The strategy appears to be working, although human rights
organizations and the United Nations have criticized the use of such
tactics because they harm civilians.
The
Syrian state news agency, SANA, said government forces had relied on
intelligence information to track the movement of rebels and ambush
them, killing more than 175 fighters from the Nusra Front, Syria’s Qaeda
affiliate, including citizens of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. SANA and
pro-government activists also published images of dozens of bodies strewn about a dirt road.
Crisis in Syria
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A video released
by Lebanon’s Al Manar TV appeared to support the government’s claim of
huge casualties, showing a long line of people said to be rebel fighters
walking along a distant road that then blows up, apparently because it
had been lined with explosives. While most of the people fall to the
ground, immobile, a few try to flee amid the sound of automatic gunfire
before another large explosion hits the area.
Al Manar is run by Hezbollah, an ally of Mr. Assad’s that has sent many of its own fighters to confront the rebels in Syria.
An
opposition activist who gave only his first name, Rafi, said via Skype
from an eastern suburb of Damascus that 70 fighters from the Nusra Front
and other rebel brigades had set out to try to open a supply line to a
besieged area east of Damascus when mines embedded in the road near the
village of Otaybeh exploded and government forces fired on them with
machine guns.
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