Medical staff claim security forces are using ambulances to mask abductions in Homs and Lattakia
Martin Chulov
guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 October 2011
"State-backed Syrian militias and security forces are roaming hospitals looking for demonstrators and commandeering ambulances to abduct them, medical workers inside the country say.
The workers – including doctors, ambulance drivers, medical students and Red Crescent volunteers – claim they face intimidation from regime officials who are trying to prevent them from treating wounded dissidents.
The allegations centre on the battle-torn city of Homs, where security forces and defectors were involved in heavy clashes . At least 19 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting, which was among the most intensive of the past two months.
"They are chasing defectors," a Homs resident who called himself Fadi told the Guardian by Skype. "And the regime is also trying to force people to join a pro-Assad demonstration tomorrow. They went to all the schools today and told teachers and parents that their sons and daughters must turn up tomorrow, because they want to take them to this demonstration against their will. That is one reason for the fighting. Another is that this is the people's reply to the Arab League, which was not good for us.".....
In Homs, residents are bracing for an intensification of a military campaign, which has seen Syrian forces fighting defectors most days and nights for the past fortnight.
"We know we are facing a bad destiny," said Fadi. "They are planning for something, we know that and we can feel it, but we don't know what it is.""
Martin Chulov
guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 October 2011
"State-backed Syrian militias and security forces are roaming hospitals looking for demonstrators and commandeering ambulances to abduct them, medical workers inside the country say.
The workers – including doctors, ambulance drivers, medical students and Red Crescent volunteers – claim they face intimidation from regime officials who are trying to prevent them from treating wounded dissidents.
The allegations centre on the battle-torn city of Homs, where security forces and defectors were involved in heavy clashes . At least 19 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting, which was among the most intensive of the past two months.
"They are chasing defectors," a Homs resident who called himself Fadi told the Guardian by Skype. "And the regime is also trying to force people to join a pro-Assad demonstration tomorrow. They went to all the schools today and told teachers and parents that their sons and daughters must turn up tomorrow, because they want to take them to this demonstration against their will. That is one reason for the fighting. Another is that this is the people's reply to the Arab League, which was not good for us.".....
In Homs, residents are bracing for an intensification of a military campaign, which has seen Syrian forces fighting defectors most days and nights for the past fortnight.
"We know we are facing a bad destiny," said Fadi. "They are planning for something, we know that and we can feel it, but we don't know what it is.""
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