Four killed in Syria as West pushes for UN action

DAMASCUS: Security forces killed four people in Syria on Thursday and used heavy machine-guns against protesters, rights groups said, as the West keeps pushing for UN action against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported two deaths in the central city of Homs, while the Arab League of Human Rights said two people were killed in Deir Ezzor, a city in eastern Syria.

More than 11 people were wounded, some seriously, in Homs, 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Damascus, when security forces opened up with heavy machine-guns, the Syrian Observatory said.

Sustained gunfire ran into late Thursday, the group said.

Abdel Karim Rihawi of the Arab League of Human Rights said at least five people were wounded in Deir Ezzor, and added the mood was "tense, with residents observing a general strike."

State television, meanwhile, said gunmen in the flashpoint city of Hama, north of Damascus, had kidnapped two members of the security forces and a student.

The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook page that has been a driving force behind almost four months of anti-regime protests, called for nationwide strikes on Thursday.

On Wednesday, security forces killed four civilians in the Jebel al-Zawiya region of the northwestern province of Idlib, where the army deployed two weeks ago to crush the revolt, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory.

His group reported a wave of arrests in the village of Ramieh in the region on Thursday.

Rihawi said security forces wielding batons dispersed 250 intellectuals and writers in Damascus's Midan district on Wednesday as they gathered, sang the national anthem and chanted "God, Syria, Freedom."

Four people were arrested, he said.

The Syrian Observatory on Thursday put the death toll since anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March at 1,419 civilians and 352 members of the security forces, with more than 1,300 people arrested.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso dismissed Assad's reform promises on Thursday and stressed that the European Union would keep up calls for "urgent change" in Damascus.

"President Assad's promises of reform and dialogue are weak and have yet to be fulfilled," Barroso said in Cairo.

He said the EU, which has twice stepped up its sanctions against Damascus since the revolt erupted, "will continue to push for urgent change."

The West has been ratcheting up pressure for UN Security Council action against Damascus, with France slamming China and Russia's "indecent" opposition to the move.

Four European countries -- Britain, France, Germany, Portugal -- have for several weeks been drafting a resolution to put before the Security Council condemning the crackdown and calling for political reforms.

But China and Russia -- the latter a longtime strategic ally of Syria -- maintain their opposition to any international interference in the country.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the "absolutely inadmissible" attitude of Assad, warning that "every dictator who sheds blood will have to make amends" before international courts.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected the French-led appeals for the international community to crack down on Syria.

Diplomacy was about more than just settling "political scores," Lavrov said at a news conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Wednesday.

"Our goal is to solve problems, but just condemning people without any solution will not lead us to anything."