Syrian interior minister leaves Beirut hospital
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BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's interior minister, wounded in a Damascus
bombing, headed home on a private jet Wednesday after treatment in
Beirut, airport officials said, despite calls from some Lebanese to put
him on trial for Syrian actions in their country.
Mohammed al-Shaar's departure coincided with the defection of the commander of Syria's military police.
Officials
at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport said al-Shaar left
Beirut and was flying to Damascus. They spoke on condition of anonymity
in line with regulations. Al-Shaar was wounded on Dec. 12 when a suicide
bomber exploded his vehicle outside the Interior Ministry, killing five
and wounding many, including the minister.
The
Syrian government denied at first that al-Shaar was wounded. Then it
emerged that he was brought to a Beirut hospital last week for
treatment. The same minister was wounded when a bomb went off on July 18
during a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus, killing four top
officials.
It was not clear if al-Shaar's
treatment was completed or if he left because of political pressure.
Lebanese are deeply divided over the Syria crisis.
The two neighbors have a long and bitter history.
Syrian
forces moved into Lebanon in 1976 as peacekeepers after the country was
swept in a civil war between Christian and Muslim militias. For nearly
30 years that followed, Lebanon lived under Syrian military and
political domination.
That grip began to slip
in 2005, when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in
Beirut. Widely accused of involvement - something it has always denied -
Syria was forced to withdraw its troops. Even so, Damascus has
maintained power and influence in Lebanon.
In
the 1980s, al-Shaar was a top intelligence official in northern Lebanon
when Syrian troops stormed the port city of Tripoli and crushed the
Islamic Unification Movement. Hundreds of people were killed in the
battles in 1986, and since then, many in northern Lebanon have referred
to al-Shaar as "the butcher of Tripoli."
Shortly
after he arrived in Beirut for treatment last week, anti-Syrian
politicians, including legislators Jamal Jarrah and Mohammed Kabbara,
called for al-Shaar's arrest. Another call came this week, when Lebanese
lawyer Tarek Shandab filed a complaint to the country's prosecution
accusing al-Shaar of "genocide and ethnic cleansing" in Tripoli.
In
another development, the general who heads Syria's military police
defected and joined the uprising against President Bashar Assad's
regime, one of the highest walkouts by a serving security chief during
the country's 21-month uprising.
Maj. Gen.
Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal appeared in a video aired on Al-Arabiya TV
late Tuesday saying he is joining "the people's revolution."
Al-Shallal's
defection comes as military pressure builds on the regime, with
government bases falling to rebel assault near the capital Damascus and
elsewhere across the country.
On Wednesday,
the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government
shelling in the northeastern province of Raqqa killed at least 20
people, including women and children.
Dozens
of generals have defected since Syria's crisis began in March 2011. In
July, Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass was the first member of Assad's inner
circle to break ranks and join the opposition.
Al-Shallal
is one of the most senior and held a top post at the time that he left.
He said in the video that the "army has derailed from its basic mission
of protecting the people and it has become a gang for killing and
destruction." He accused the military of "destroying cities and villages
and committing massacres against our innocent people who came out to
demand freedom."
Thousands of Syrian soldiers
have defected over the past 21 months and many of them are now fighting
against government forces. Many have cited attacks on civilians as the
reason they switched sides.
The Observatory
said the shelling in an agricultural area of Raqqa province near the
village of Qahtaniyeh killed 20, including eight children, three women
and nine others.
An amateur video showed the
bodies of a dozen people including children lying in a row inside a
room. Some of them had blood on their clothes, while weeping could be
heard in the background.
The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.
Also
Wednesday, activists said rebels were attacking the Wadi Deif military
base in the northern province of Idlib. The base, which is near the
strategic town of Maaret al-Numan, has been under siege for weeks.
In
October, rebels captured Maaret al-Numan, a town on the highway that
links the capital Damascus with Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a major
battleground in the civil war since July.
The
attack on Wadi Deif comes a day after rebels captured the town of Harem
near the Turkish border. The rebels have captured wide areas and
military posts in northern Syria over the past weeks.
Syria's
crisis began with protests demanding reforms but later turned into a
civil war. Anti-regime activists estimate more than 40,000 have died in
the past 21 months.
In Lebanon, airport
officials in Beirut said Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad
and Assistant Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnous flew early Wednesday to
Moscow.
Their visit to Moscow comes two days
after Assad met in Damascus with Lakhdar Brahimi, the international
envoy to Syria. Brahimi, who is scheduled to go to Moscow as well, gave
no indication of progress toward a negotiated solution for the civil
war.
Brahimi is still in Syria and met Tuesday
with representatives of the opposition National Coordination Body,
state-run news agency SANA said. The head of the group, Hassan
Abdul-Azim, said Brahimi briefed them on his efforts to reach an
"international consensus, especially between Russia and the United
Stated to reach a solution."
NCB spokesman
Rajaa al-Naser said his group said there must be an end to violence and
formation of a "transitional government with full prerogatives."
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