Blast hits troop escort of Syria UN observers

A roadside bomb hit troops escorting UN observers in Syria yesterday, wounding six and prompting UN chief Ban Ki-moon to warn that such attacks imperil the future of the hard-won monitoring mission. Mission chief Major General Robert Mood was in the convoy but escaped unharmed along with 11 other observers and his spokesman, Neeraj Singh, an AFP photographer travelling with them reported. The bomb, apparently planted underground, exploded after the passage of four vehicles carrying the UN team, hitting the troops travelling behind them, the photographer added. The blast hit as the convoy entered the city of Daraa, south of Damascus, cradle of a 14-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Mood said the attack was “a graphic example of violence that the Syrian people” were suffering on a daily basis. “It is imperative that violence in all its forms must stop,” the Norwegian general was quoted as saying by Singh, who added: “We remain focused on our task.” In New York, the UN chief warned that bombings like the one near the convoy cast doubt on the future of the mission set up to monitor a truce brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan that was supposed to go into force on April 12. Ban said there was no immediate evidence that the UN military observers were the target but he expressed deep concern at the growing use of roadside and other improvised bombs across Syria. “Such incidents, in addition to the continued violence reported in many cities in Syria, call into question the commitment of the parties to the cessation of violence and may have a direct impact on the future of the mission,” Ban said through his spokesman Martin Nesirky. “We have no evidence to believe that the explosion was intended to target the UNSMIS (UN Supervision Mission in Syria) convoy; however, this incident demonstrates the difficult and challenging conditions under which our UN observers are operating,” the UN chief added. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the blast was “further evidence that the ceasefire is not holding and we really have to continue to pressure the Assad regime and all actors”. The opposition Syrian National Council accused the regime of being behind the blast, the latest breach of the month-old ceasefire agreement brokered by Annan. “We believe the regime is using these tactics to try to push the observers out amid popular demands to increase their numbers,” SNC executive committee member Samir Nashar told AFP. In other violence, 11 people were killed across Syria, including civilians and members of the security forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Security forces also carried out arrest raids outside Damascus and in Deir Al Zor province in the northeast, the Britain-based watchdog added. In neighbouring Lebanon, cross-border gunfire from Syrian forces killed an elderly woman and wounded her daughter on Tuesday, an official said, a month after a Lebanese TV cameraman was killed in a similar shooting. The Observatory said that almost 12,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria since March last year. About 800 of them have died since the UN-backed truce was supposed to have taken effect, it added. The watchdog accused the authorities of forcing into exile “thousands of young men” from the Mediterranean coastal city of Banias, among the first to rise up against the regime. “The intelligence forces target the young men, threatening to arrest them and their wives on charges of supporting the uprising,” it added, saying nearly 5,000 had fled “for fear of being arrested, tortured and killed”. Annan told the UN Security Council on Tuesday the priority in Syria was “to stop the killing”, and expressed concern that torture, mass arrests and other human rights violations were intensifying. Annan plans to visit Damascus for a second time in the coming weeks, his spokesman said, though this depended on events on the ground. The envoy said the current observers on the ground “have had a calming effect” and the deployment by the end of the month of a 300-strong team would see a “much greater impact”. A statement from the mission said 113 staff - 70 military observers and 43 civilians - were already on the ground. From a base in Damascus, it said there were eight military observers and three civilian staff deployed in Homs, and four military observers each in Hama, Idlib, Daraa and Aleppo. But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged the UN to bolster its mission to as many as 3,000 - well past the 300 authorised under a Security Council resolution.