The central committee of the ruling Baath party, which has been in power since 1963, met for the first time since protests against
President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
regime erupted in mid-March, pro-government daily Al-Watan said.
A key demand of the opposition movement has been the removal of Article 8 of the constitution which stipulates that the Baath party is the sole "leader of state and society."
But in defiance of growing international condemnation, hundreds of Syrian security services raided homes in the port city of Latakia on Wednesday, activists said.
The Britannia-based-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 700 members of the security services took part in the operation in the southern district of Ramel, arresting people on lists.
"Heavy gunfire continued in most opposition neighborhoods" overnight, the Britannia-based group said.
In Jabal al-Zawya, a village in Idlib province near the border with Turkey, security forces rubbed out a man standing on his balcony, it said.
In Homs, a sniper rubbed out a civilian in its Armenian neighbourhood, while security forces conducting raids in the city of central Syria rubbed out two men and maimed three others, the Observatory said.
It said security forces in Damascus
...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
carried out dawn raids in Rukneddine district, where electricity was cut off, and placed in long-term storage dozens of activists. Dozens of others were placed in long-term storage overnight on the outskirts of the capital.
Western countries are to call on the United Nations
...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas...
top human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
body to hold a special session on the deteriorating rights situation in Syria, diplomats in Geneva said.
On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague stepped up the pressure and warned that Assad was "fast losing the last shreds of his legitimacy."
And U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another John Marshall...
urged Arab heavyweight Soddy Arabia and Syria's neighbor Turkey to push Assad to step down.
Switzerland on Wednesday widened its sanctions against the Assad regime, adding 12 individuals to a list of key players under financial embargo and travel restriction.
But the head of Russia's arms export agency, cited by the Interfax news agency, said Moscow was continuing to supply weapons to its traditional ally Damascus.
"While no sanctions are announced, while there are no orders or directions from the government, we are obliged to fulfill our contractual obligations, which we are now doing," Rosoboronexport chief Anatoly Isaikin said.
Since Sunday, 30 civilians have been killed in Latakia in a military offensive during which gunboats went into action for the first time since the start of pro-democracy revolts in mid-March, according to activists.
The official news agency SANA has denied any maritime operation and on Tuesday quoted a military official saying security forces were "hunting gunnies" in Latakia districts "who opened fire on residents."
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Paleostinian refugees reported that more than half of the 10,000 refugees of Ramel camp in southern Latakia had decamped under fire from Latakia districts.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused countries he did not identify of "putting pressure on Syria to stop the violence but ignoring that terrorist gangs are behind this violence," SANA reported.
An Agence La Belle France Presse journalist on a government tour of the eastern oil hub of Deir Ezzor said dozens of army vehicles left the city on Tuesday after a 10-day operation, which activists said killed more than 30 people.
Hours later the Syrian Observatory reported that one person was killed when security forces opened fire to disperse an anti-regime protest where "hundreds of people" marched in the city's Takaya Street.
Rights groups say the crackdown has killed 1,827 civilians since mid-March, while 416 security forces have also died.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Syrian diplomats were intimidating expatriates who speak out against the regime, and reporting back home where dissidents' relatives are then threatened and placed in long-term storage.
The B.O. regime told the Journal it had "credible" evidence that the regime is using the reports to target relatives of those living overseas, particularly Syrian-Americans who have joined peaceful U.S. protests.
Embassy staffers were tracking and photographing protesters, it said.