President Bashar al-Assad’s government forces have stepped attacks on civilian areas in Syria, a UN envoy said today, warning that the conflict had now become stuck in a “grim spiral of violence.”
The United Nations fears “dangerous implications” for Syria’s neighbours as the civil war worsens, Robert Serry, UN
special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the UN Security Council.
The violence and killing continue to mount as a result of a dangerous militarization of the conflict,” Serry told a
council meeting on the Middle East.
Military operations have broadened encompassing all major cities. Indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas by
government forces with heavy weapons, tanks and air assets has increased,” Serry said.
Operations by opposition groups have also “intensified”, he added.
Syrian activists say more than 27,000 people have died since an uprising against Assad started in March last year. The United Nations says more than 20,000 have died but is increasingly worried that international divisions on the
conflict could help it spread.
UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is to brief the UN Security Council in the coming days on his meetings with Assad and other Syrian officials in Damascus.
———————–(AFP)