ISTANBUL: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has moved military equipment and personnel to civilian areas and put prisoners in military sites as human shields against any Western air strikes, the opposition said yesterday.
The Istanbul-based opposition coalition said rockets, Scud missiles and launchers as well as soldiers had been moved to locations including schools, university dormitories and government buildings inside cities.
“Reports from inside Syria confirm that Assad has (also) ordered detainees to be moved to military targets and to be used as human shields against possible Western air strikes,” the opposition coalition said.
Ex-soldiers told Reuters last week that military sites in Syria were being packed with soldiers who had been effectively imprisoned by their superiors over doubts about their loyalty, making them possible casualties in any US-led air strikes.
Thousands of loyal security forces and militia, meanwhile, have moved into schools and residential buildings in Damascus, mixing with the civilian population in the hope of escaping a Western strike, residents say.
Critics say the delay is simply buying Assad more time. The opposition coalition earlier called on the US Congress to back a military intervention and said international inaction during the conflict, now in its third year, had emboldened Assad and allowed the violence to escalate.
France said yesterday that it would await the US Congress’ decision. “France cannot go it alone,” Interior Minister Manuel Valls told Europe 1 radio. “We need a coalition.”
Meanwhile, Syria hailed an “historic American retreat” yesterday, mockingly accusing US President Barack Obama of hesitation and confusion after he delayed a military strike to consult Congress.
With Obama drawing back from the brink, President Bashar Al Assad said Syria was capable of confronting any external strike, but left the most withering comments to his official media and a junior minister.
“Obama announced yesterday, directly or through implication, the beginning of the historic American retreat,” Syria’s official Al Thawra newspaper said in a front-page editorial. Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad accused Obama of indecision.
“It is clear there was a sense of hesitation and disappointment in what was said by President Barack Obama yesterday. And it is also clear there was a sense of confusion as well,” he told reporters in Damascus.
Reuters
