Syrian tanks, security agents and pro-regime gunmen fanned out into the streets of several towns to root out protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad in a sweep Saturday that killed at least five people.
The heaviest assault was in the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia, where a day earlier thousands had turned out in protests. At least 20 tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into the city’s el-Ramel neighborhood amid intense gunfire that sent many residents fleeing the area, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
EGYPT: Muslim group challenges ruling military council.
Egypt’s largest political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, warned the country’s military rulers Saturday not to interfere in the writing of a new constitution.
The statement from the Brotherhood marks the first time the Islamist group has directly challenged Egypt’s ruling military council since the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak in February.
The group’s stand was prompted by comments from a senior government official last week that the military council will soon set out certain principles outlining who is eligible to draft a new constitution. The Brotherhood also fears the military is trying to enshrine a political role for itself in the constitution.
UNITED STATES: Obama speaks to foreign leaders on Syria.
President Barack Obama reached out to the leaders of Britain and Saudi Arabia on Saturday to build consensus for an end to the violent crackdown by Syria’s government.
The White House said Obama spoke to British Prime Minister David Cameron and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, both of whom agreed that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government must end its attacks on civilians.
Denver Post wire services
Khadafy unlikely to accept defeat
Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy is likely to fight hard to keep control of Zawiya, 30 miles from Tripoli. The city of about 200,000 people on the Mediterranean coast is key because it controls the main supply road to the capital from the Tunisian border and is the site of the sole remaining oil refineries in the west still under the regime’s control.
