Arabs meet on Syria mission, rebels ‘overrun town’

Egypt: An Arab League meeting opened yesterday to decide the future of its heavily criticised observer mission to unrest-swept Syria, where activists said army defectors briefly overran a protest hub near Damascus. A League panel began closed-doors talks to hear a report on the mission ahead of a decisive meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.

Fierce clashes erupted late Saturday in Douma, just northeast of Damascus, after security forces shot dead four civilians at a funeral in the town, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “Groups of deserters took control of all districts in the town of Douma, near Damascus, after fierce fighting on Saturday with Syrian security forces,” the Observatory’s chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

“Dissident groups withdrew from the town and returned to their bases,” the Britain-based group said later in a statement, without giving any casualty toll for the operation.

The withdrawal was apparently prompted by fears of a full military assault, although Observatory spokeswoman Hivin Kako told BBC radio the only forces left in the town were police “which play a very basic role.”

AFP