DC to Assad: Transition or get out

DC to Assad: Transition or get out

The Syrian army pressed a scorched earth campaign in the northern mountains on Monday even as state media said two top officials had been banned from foreign travel in a state probe into their role in a previous bloody crackdown.
Washington called on President Bashar al-Assad to lead a transition or leave power, as Western powers expressed mounting frustration at the failure of the UN Security Council to agree a resolution condemning his government’s crackdown.
Refugees among the thousands who have fled into neighbouring Turkey said troops were burning crops and slaughtering livestock in villages near the border.
State television said the army was pursuing “armed gangs” into the woods and mountains around Jisr al-Shughur after storming the protest hotbed at the weekend.
Human rights activists reported heavy gunfire and explosions in the town throughout Sunday after troops backed by helicopter gunships and around 200 tanks launched a two-pronged dawn assault.
On Monday, intermittent gunfire was heard as troops launched search operations in the village of Uram al-Joz, east of Jisr al-Shughur and in the Jebel al-Zawiya mountains further south, the activists said.
The majority of the town’s 50,000 residents had fled in the week-long build-up to the crackdown.
More than 6,800 have sought refuge in Turkey, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the town, Turkey’s Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.
Britain said that newly re-elected Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had expressed support for its tabling with European allies of a UN Security Council draft resolution condemning the Syrian crackdown.
“Prime Minister Erdogan welcomed the UK’s efforts to put pressure on the regime through a Security Council resolution and they agreed that Britain and Turkey should work hand in hand to achieve this,” a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said.
The United States is backing the European draft resolution but veto-wielding Security Council permanent members Russia and China have so far blocked the draft, and several non-permanent members have expressed reservations.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Washington condemned the violence being perpetrated in Syria “in the strongest possible terms.”
“President Assad needs to engage in political dialogue. A transition needs to take place. If President Assad does not lead that transition then he should step aside,” Carney said.
France’s UN ambassador Gerard Araud said that the diplomatic wrangling, which has now gone on for two weeks, was costing lives. continued