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PLO official accuses Syria of ‘crimes against humanity’

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An assault by Syrian security forces on a Palestinian refugee camp in the coastal city of Latakia amounts to a crime against humanity, Yasser Abed Rabbo, the PLO secretary general, told Reuters. “The shelling is taking place using gunships and tanks on houses built from tin, on people who have no place to run to or even a shelter to hide in…this is a crime against humanity,” Abed Rabbo said.

UN officials said yesterday that as many as 10,000 residents of a Palestinian refugee neighborhood in the Syrian port city of Latakia had fled during a four-day assault, as security forces continued their crackdown on anti-government protesters and carried out more arrests.

The reports from Latakia made headlines in Palestinian newspapers in the West Bank yesterday and prompted a strong response from senior Palestinian officials, although there was no evidence that the Palestinian neighborhood of Raml was a specific target of the crackdown. 

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas said “we urge the Syrian authorities to stop the attack on the refugee camp immediately. It is unacceptable; we cannot accept it.”

Syria has long given residence to Palestinian factions opposed to Abbas, including Hamas and some splinter Palestinian groups. So far, Hamas has sought to avoid alienating the government in Damascus while stopping short of statements of support, like those from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement, and even more pronounced, the allied Amal movement in Lebanon. However, yesterday in a pro-Hamas newspaper in Gaza, a columnist criticised the ferocity of the Syrian crackdown.

The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union, a grassroots activists’ group, said six people have been killed in Latakia this week, bringing the civilian death toll in the city to 34.