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Syrian Forces Strike Rebels in Wide-Ranging Assaults Syrian Forces Strike Rebels in Wide-Ranging Assaults
(about 3 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian forces carried out what antigovernment activists described as furious assaults against a range of insurgent enclaves on Thursday, seeking to snap a stalemate in the central city of Homs, attacking rebels ensconced in a seaport near Russia’s naval station and destroying a historic bridge in the contested western city of Deir al-Zour. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian forces carried out what antigovernment activists described as furious assaults against a range of insurgent enclaves on Thursday, seeking to snap a stalemate in the central city of Homs, attacking rebels ensconced in a seaport near Russia’s naval station and apparently destroying a historic bridge in the contested western city of Deir al-Zour.
The new fighting may have left at least 200 people dead just in the area of the seaport, Baniyas, and a nearby village, Bayda, according to activists affiliated with two antigovernment groups, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. They said entire families had been found dead in Bayda, including the mayor and his children. Efforts to corroborate those reports were difficult because of restricted access for journalists in Syria. The new fighting may have left dozens of people dead just in the area of the seaport, Baniyas, and a nearby village, Bayda, according to activists affiliated with two antigovernment groups, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. Some activists said more than 100 were killed in Bayda, including entire families, among them the mayor and his children.
There were also reports of sectarian fighting near the border with Lebanon around the Syrian town of Qusair, a flash point between Sunni fighters of the insurgency and Shiite militants loyal to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant organization that has sided with President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict and partly depends on him for weapons. Activists and medical workers reached by telephone said that civilians were trying to evacuate the area and that there had been many people wounded. Efforts to corroborate those reports were difficult because of restricted access for journalists in Syria. State media said nothing about civilian casualties in the seaport combat, which the official SANA news agency described as part of a campaign to seize weapons in a “raid against terrorists’ dens.”
There were also reports of sectarian fighting near the border with Lebanon around the Syrian town of Qusair, a flash point between Sunni fighters of the insurgency and Shiite militants loyal to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant organization that has sided with President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict and partly depends on him for weapons.
Activists and medical workers reached by telephone said that civilians were trying to evacuate the Qusair area and that there had been many people wounded.
Sunni-Shiite hostilities in Syria also appeared to have been further inflamed by what both SANA and Hezbollah-controlled media in Lebanon called the gravesite desecration of a revered figure in Shiite history by insurgent fighters in Adra, a town north of Damascus. The reported pillaging of the tomb, containing Hajar Ibn Adi Al Kindi, one of the Prophet Mohammed’s companions, would be a direct challenge to Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Hasrallah, who in a speech this week publicly warned Syria’s Sunni fighters against such actions.
It was unclear whether the widened scope of fighting on Thursday signaled a dangerous new phase in the country’s civil war, which has become increasingly sectarian in nature and which by United Nations calculations has left more than 70,000 people dead, nearly 7 million in need of assistance in Syria and more than 1.4 million refugees.
The fighting coincided with what might have been the first armed clash between Syrian insurgent fighters and Turkish border guards, resulting in at least one Turkish death. The circumstances behind the clash, at the Akcakale crossing in Turkey’s Sanliurfa district, were not immediately clear. Turkey, which shares a 550-mile border with Syria, has officially sided with the Syrian opposition in the two-year-old conflict and is home to at least 300,000 Syrian refugees.The fighting coincided with what might have been the first armed clash between Syrian insurgent fighters and Turkish border guards, resulting in at least one Turkish death. The circumstances behind the clash, at the Akcakale crossing in Turkey’s Sanliurfa district, were not immediately clear. Turkey, which shares a 550-mile border with Syria, has officially sided with the Syrian opposition in the two-year-old conflict and is home to at least 300,000 Syrian refugees.
The Syrian government attacks on rebel positions, some of which have been held for many months, came one day after President Assad made a rare public appearance in the capital, Damascus, apparently seeking to counter the impression that he had been cowed into hiding by consecutive deadly bombings in the most heavily protected central part of the city, which his forces control and which remains his power base.The Syrian government attacks on rebel positions, some of which have been held for many months, came one day after President Assad made a rare public appearance in the capital, Damascus, apparently seeking to counter the impression that he had been cowed into hiding by consecutive deadly bombings in the most heavily protected central part of the city, which his forces control and which remains his power base.
Opposition activists said the military campaign on Thursday seemed partly designed to eject rebel fighters from Homs, Syria’s third-largest city and long a hotbed of the insurgency, which has defied multiple attempts by Mr. Assad’s forces to crush the resistance there. Rebel fighters have controlled parts of Homs for more than a year and the fighting there has been among the most intense in the conflict, which by United Nations estimates has left more than 70,000 people dead. Opposition activists said the military campaign on Thursday seemed partly designed to eject rebel fighters from Homs, Syria’s third-largest city and long a hotbed of the insurgency, which has defied multiple attempts by Mr. Assad’s forces to crush the resistance there. Rebel fighters have controlled parts of Homs for more than a year and the fighting there has been among the most intense in the conflict.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain and draws information from activists in Syria, said loyalist forces had regained control of the strategically placed Wadi Sayeh district in the center of Homs.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain and draws information from activists in Syria, said loyalist forces had regained control of the strategically placed Wadi Sayeh district in the center of Homs.
The official SANA news agency on Thursday listed several areas farther north of Homs, around Aleppo and Idlib, where it said government forces had moved against insurgents, but it did not refer directly to a major operation under way in Homs, other than to say that loyalists “destroyed an explosive devices warehouse and killed and injured” an unspecified number of rebels there. Opposition activists said fighting was especially fierce in the Ras Rifa neighborhood of Baniyas, on the Mediterranean coast north of the Tartus naval refueling station, Russia’s last remaining military outpost in the Middle East and an important symbol of the resilient Russian support for Mr. Assad’s government.
Opposition activists said there was especially intense fighting in the Ras Rifa neighborhood of Baniyas, on the Mediterranean coast north of the Tartus naval refueling station, Russia’s last remaining military outpost in the Middle East and an important symbol of the resilient Russian support for Mr. Assad’s government.
The Syrian Observatory said that government forces shelled Ras Rifa, with smoke seen billowing from the area, and that gunfire could be heard throughout the city as well as in nearby Bayda, as reports of civilian casualties began to circulate. It was the first time the government side had attacked the Baniyas area since troops stormed parts of the city in May 2011.The Syrian Observatory said that government forces shelled Ras Rifa, with smoke seen billowing from the area, and that gunfire could be heard throughout the city as well as in nearby Bayda, as reports of civilian casualties began to circulate. It was the first time the government side had attacked the Baniyas area since troops stormed parts of the city in May 2011.
The fighting there has been depicted as overwhelmingly sectarian, directed at Syria’s majority Sunni Muslims by representatives of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that has provided the bedrock of the Assad family’s power base in Syria for four decades. If anything, the fighting there on Thursday only seemed to harden the overwhelmingly sectarian nature of the conflict, directed at Syria’s majority Sunni Muslims by representatives of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that has provided the bedrock of the Assad family’s power base in Syria for four decades.
“The Alawites here are sectarian in every sense of the word and yet they accuse us of being prejudiced,” a resident of Baniyas who identified himself as Abu Dajana said in a telephone interview. “Well, let me tell you something: Starting today, I am sectarian! I don’t want ‘peaceful’ anymore. My brothers and friends are dying from the shelling.”
According to the Syrian Observatory, antigovernment sentiment in Baniyas dates to the same day in March 2011 that protests first broke out in the southern city of Dara’a. Three weeks later, in April 2011, pro-government militias launched the first sectarian attack on a Sunni mosque in the south of the city, the Syrian Observatory said.According to the Syrian Observatory, antigovernment sentiment in Baniyas dates to the same day in March 2011 that protests first broke out in the southern city of Dara’a. Three weeks later, in April 2011, pro-government militias launched the first sectarian attack on a Sunni mosque in the south of the city, the Syrian Observatory said.
The Local Coordination Committees reported that a number of houses were set afire in Baniyas. It also reported, without attribution, mass arrests and summary executions by pro-government forces in Bayda, with “dozens of martyrs, including women by gunfire, knives and then burning the dead.”The Local Coordination Committees reported that a number of houses were set afire in Baniyas. It also reported, without attribution, mass arrests and summary executions by pro-government forces in Bayda, with “dozens of martyrs, including women by gunfire, knives and then burning the dead.”
In Deir al-Zour, a western Syrian city that has been a recurrent battleground in the conflict, the Syrian Observatory reported that government forces shelled rebel positions and destroyed part of the Muaalak Bridge over the Euphrates River. The suspension bridge, built in the 1920s during French occupation, is a replica of a bridge in southern France and was regarded as an important piece of Syrian history. Activist videos uploaded on YouTube showed the remnants of the bridge, its pillars seemingly intact but the suspension gone. In Deir al-Zour, a western Syrian city that has been a recurrent battleground in the conflict, the Syrian Observatory reported that government forces shelled rebel positions and destroyed part of the Muaalak Bridge over the Euphrates River. A SANA dispatch later disputed that account, asserting the bridge was hit by rocket-propelled grenades launched by terrorists, its description of rebel fighters.
Turkish-Syrian relations have become especially estranged over the Syrian conflict, punctuated by occasional Syrian artillery shelling or warplane sorties on the Syrian side of the border and Turkish warnings of military reprisals. But there had never been an armed clash between Turkish border guards and nongovernment Syrian fighters until Thursday. The suspension bridge, built in the 1920s during French occupation, is a replica of a bridge in southern France and was regarded as an important piece of Syrian history. Activist videos uploaded on YouTube showed the remnants of the bridge, its pillars seemingly intact but the suspension gone.
Officials in Turkey said they were investigating the cause of the clash at Akcakale, with some calling it an irresponsible display of recklessness by a few members of the Free Syrian Army, the main group of the Syrian armed resistance, who had wanted to cross into Turkey and had refused to show passports or submit to body searches. In Washington, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel confirmed on Thursday that the Obama administration was rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels, although he said no decisions had been made. Mr. Hagel spoke at a Pentagon news conference after meeting with his British counterpart, Philip Hammond, whose government was among the early American allies to assert that Mr. Assad’s government may have used chemical weapons in the conflict.
Abdulhakim Ayhan, the mayor of Akcakale, said in a telephone interview, that “members of the Free Syrian Army and a large Syrian crowd first attacked our officials with bars and stones before random gunshots were heard.” President Obama has said the use of such weapons would be a “red line” that could lead to American military intervention. But he has also said the evidence is incomplete and he wants verifiable facts, implicitly drawing a contrast to the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 on what was subsequently determined to be faulty intelligence about weapons of mass destruction secretly amassed by Saddam Hussein.
Other Turkish officials said the gunmen might have been smugglers. Attempts to reach representatives of the Free Syrian Army for comment were not immediately successful. T
The wounded included three Turkish police officers and two military employees, three Turkish civilians and one Syrian civilian. One of the police officers died at a hospital, Turkish news media reported.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Alan Cowell from Paris, Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul, and Thom Shanker and Mark Landler from Washington.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Alan Cowell from Paris and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul.