Citing serious security concerns:

US closes Syria embassy, pulls out all staff

UNICEF says 400 children killed in Syrian unrest

At least 400 children have been killed in 11 months of violence in Syria and almost the same number detained, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

“As of the end of January, 400 children are dead and more than 400 have been detained,” UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said at a briefing.

US: The United States closed its embassy in Syria and pulled out all remaining staff on Monday citing serious security concerns as protests swirled against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. US President Barack Obama stressed it was important to resolve the ongoing conflict diplomatically, framing it as very different from the situation in Libya, where Western military intervention helped oust Moamer Gaddafi.

“The United States has suspended operations of our embassy in Damascus as of February 6. Ambassador (Robert) Ford and all American personnel have now departed the country,” a State Department statement said. “The recent surge in violence, including bombings in Damascus on December 23 and January 6, has raised serious concerns that our embassy is not sufficiently protected from armed attack,” it said, referring to attacks linked to Al-Qaeda.

“We, along with several other diplomatic missions, conveyed our security concerns to the Syrian government but the regime failed to respond adequately.” Obama said a negotiated solution with Syria was still possible and defended his administration's handling of crisis, saying the US had been “relentless” in demanding that Assad leave power. “It is important to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention and I think that's possible,” Obama said in an NBC interview broadcast Monday. “My sense is you are seeing more and more people inside of Syria recognizing that they need to turn a chapter and the Assad regime is feeling the noose tightening around them.

AFP