EU steps up Syrian sanctions with oil embargo

Protests still ongoing in Syria At least 23 people were shot dead by Syrian security forces, backed by the army, when thousands demonstrated across the country against the Baathist regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy activists , according to Local Coordination Committees (LCC). Protesters respondedto calls posted on the Internet for nationwide anti-regime demonstrations after the weekly Friday prayers under the banner of “death rather than humiliation.” LLC said demonstrators rallied outside the home of the attorney general of the flashpoint rebellious province of Hama in support of his reported decision to resign.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said eight people were killed as security forces intervened to disperse protests in several suburbs of Damascus, including Douma and Erbeen. Six other people died in Homs province and three in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, said the Britain-based Observatory in an updated report, adding a 16-year-old girl was among those killed. Syrian state television, however, reported that the security forces killed two armed men after coming under attack in Talbisseh, a town in central Homs province. According to state news agency SANA, three members of the security forces were killed by "armed terrorist groups who attacked them in Talbisseh, Erbeen and Hammuriyeh [also a Damascus suburb]." SANA reported that four assailants were killed in the confrontations, while an army captain, Wael el-Ali, was kidnapped in a town of Idlib province, in northwestern Syria near Turkey. Verification of the reports was not possible because foreign media are barred from moving freely around the country.
In Qaboun, a Damascus neighbourhood, a protester says the mosques of the area were all under heavy guard by security forces trying to prevent any demonstrations from taking place. He said ten to fifteen big buses filled with security personnel and soldiers in uniforms were waiting near al-Ghufran Mosque. "We were 300 worshippers [for Friday] prayers, while there were 500 security men," the protester told Al Jazeera. He also said that while the regime arrested around 1,000 key protesters from Qaboun, they would continue to take to the streets.
An activist from the Local Co-ordination Committees in al-Hajar Aswad district of Damascus says security personnel were deployed throughout the area and that he had seen two or three helicopters circling the area. Fifteen busses with security personnel and shabiha thugs had been deployed at the municipality building alone, he said. He said only a few hundred protesters had come out today. "Every protester who demonstrates today knows that he can be killed, wounded or arrested," he said. "The regime wants to finish all pro-democracy protesters by killing or arresting. Now, Syria is a big prison or hospital."
In the Damascus district of Midan, protesters carried banners saying “S.O.S” and “We want international protection”. An eyewitness said protesters had called for the execution of President Assad. “Ramadan and Eid are over, but our demonstrations are continuing to the end,” a protester in Midan told Al Jazeera. “Today’s slogan 'Death not Humiliation' is the best answer to the regime. We want to tell the regime and the world that the Syrian people want freedom and dignity, not humiliation, under Assad’s regime.”
Syrian state TV has accused Al Jazeera of collaborating with the "kidnappers" of the attorney-general of Hama, forcing him to "confess". Adnan al-Bakkour quit his post earlier in this week, according to a video posted online where he said he had witnessed over 70 executions and torture at Hama central prison.  The state-run news agency SANA said "Terrorist Qusai Abdel-Razzaq Shaqfeh, from Hama, confessed to acting as an eyewitness and fabricating false news and videos on events in Syria for al-Jazeera channel and to cooperating with foreign sides to form armed groups to attack the army and security forces and citizens."
The LCC said in a statement that “huge demonstrations” from the Hama province villages of Kfar Nabudah and Karnaz formed outside Bakkour’s home “to support him.” Another march took off from the northern city of Amuda, with protesters calling for the “fall of the regime” and some carrying signs “urging Russia to stop exporting sales to the regime,” the LCC said. The marchers staged a sit-in in Amuda’s central square, it added. Women took to the streets in the southern Syrian town of Jassem, in the Daraa province, where the pro-democracy protests shaking Syria since mid-March first broke out, the LCC said, adding that gunfire was heard.
Four protesters have been shot dead by security forces in Damascus suburbs, activists say: Three in Hamouria and one in Arbeen. The victim in Arbeen was Sami Dahroj, according to activists. An eyewitness says security forces have been shooting at the families of the injured protesters from Arbeen and Hamouria who have gathered outside the al-Fateh hospital. An activist says security forces and regime thugs who have surrounded al-Fateh hospital in Kafr Batna at the outskirts of Damascus are shooting at families gathered outside. Families fear that security forces will storm the hospital and arrest their wounded relatives, who have been brought to the hospital from the Arbeen and Hamouria neighbourhoods after security forces there opened fire during protests earlier today, the activist told Al Jazeera. He said more security personnel had arrived and set up a checkpoint by the hospital preventing wounded from accessing medical help inside and medical staff from leaving the hospital.
Three protesters -Mousa al-Dibs, Mohammed al-Sahou and Ahmad Falah - have been killed in the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, according to activists. There are reports of four protesters being injured. Activists also say at least two people have been killed in the Damascus suburb of Zamalka as security forces have opened fire on protesters. No names have been confirmed yet.
Activists also say security forces have opened fire at protesters in the Damascus suburb of Douma. According to activists, more than 15,000 demonstrators have taken to the streets in the northwestern city of Idlib and the numbers are increasing. Security forces have opened fire Homs in an attempt to disperse thousands of protesters in the city square, eyewitnesses say.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported gunfire in Nawa, also in Daraa province, and spoke of injuries without elaborating. “Security forces are blocking worshippers from leaving Al-Hajar Mosque to take part in demonstrations,” the Observatory said.
Protests also broke out in the central protest hub of Homs, the Observatory said.
Around 2,500 protesters are setting off on a protest march from Qasmo Mosque after Friday prayers in the northern town of Qamishli, an activist told Al Jazeera. There are no reports of security forces preventing the demonstration. Activists have named this Friday: “Death, but not Humiliation Friday”. Moreover, cars and buses loaded with security personnel and shabiha thugs have entered the mountain city of Zabadani. Activists there said that security forces are blocking the roads in an attempt to prevent people from reaching mosques for the Friday prayers. Whereas activists in Deir Ezzour, in the eastern part of Syria, say that security forces have opened fire on demonstraters outside al- Hussien Mosque in the Hamidieh neighbourhood.
Meanwhile, security forces have laid siege Ali Bin Abi Talib mosque trapping the worshippers from demonstrating, according to the LCC. Meanwhile, in the coastal city of Latakia, activists say that thugs from the shabiha and security forces have attacked protesters that set out from Gareeb Mosque after Friday prayers. Activists say that many people have been arbitrarily arrested. At another demonstration in the city, near al-Mograbi Mosque in the al-Qalaa area, protesters have been chanting for the toppling of the regime, and in Kesweh, a suburb to Damascus, activists are reporting heavy gunfire in the middle street and in the sport’s club. Protesters had assembled in Hokama' Square despite a heavy security presence. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets despite the heavy security presence in the southern city of Deraa, demanding that President al-Assad be sentenced to death.
Security forces opened fire, shooting into the air, in an attempt to disperse a protest held by women in the city, activists reported. At Musa bin Nusr Mosque, worshippers threw stones at security forces after teargas had been fired towards them, as they left the mosque, activist Abu Hanafi, from 17 April Movement told al-Jazeera. “One canister landed inside the mosque,” he said. While people managed to toss the canister out of the mosque Hanafi said that “people are feeling very sick after being exposed to the gas.” Activists say that security forces have opened fire on protesters in Erbeen, a suburb to Damascus. There are some reports of injuries. Meanwhile security forces and armed thugs attacked Rahman and Ibrahim al-Khalil mosques in the Hajar Aswad neighbourhood of Damascus before worshippers had a chance to leave to the mosques. There are also reports of Shabiha beating up protesters in the Hamouria neighbourhood of the capital in an attempt to disperse them.
In Aleppo around 2,000 protesters in al-Sakhour neighbourhood are calling for the toppling of the Assad regime, an eyewitness told Al Jazeera. He said that there is a heavy security presence and that shabiha thugs are beating protesters in order to disperse them. “Today is Death not Humiliation day and it represents the people’s sentiments very well and the suffering we have gone through,” he said. Elsewhere in Aleppo demonstrations are taking place in the Koubani, al-Baab and Tal Rifat neighbourhood where residents buried a protester who was killed yesterday.
In other developments, n online campaign is calling for a boycott of Shell until the oil company stops operations in Syria. Shell official said that halting operations would hurt the Syrian people more than its government, and that the company would not stop producing oil in Syria unless it was directed to do so by the EU. EU governments met in Poland on Friday and agreed to impose an embargo on Syrian crude exports. Speaking from the EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Sopot, Poland, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “The EU has made clear that we will increase the pressure on President Assad until he steps aside and allows a transition to a different type of regime. Throughout Ramadan we have witnessed horrific scenes of continued brutality. This is unacceptable and today we have agreed a ban on all EU imports of Syrian crude oil products to constrict the regime’s funding and reduce its ability to fund the repression of innocent civilians.
“I have repeatedly made clear the importance of ensuring that our actions are targeted and that their impact on ordinary Syrians is minimised. This remains the case. The problems that the Syrian people are facing today are the direct result of years of economic mismanagement and the economic collapse caused by the Assad regime’s current crackdown. Any attempt to pass on further hardship to the Syrian people would show his utter disregard for their well being. Let  me be clear: President Assad and those around him are to blame for this. No one else.”
Meanwhile, the French foreign minister says France will develop its contacts with Syria's opposition, AP reports. Alain Juppe said France is aiming to have a new UN Security Council resolution to "explicitly condemn the use of violence against the population and organise a sanctions regime." Juppe said Friday that "It's a tough fight but we won't give up." French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Friday that his country was pushing for a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the violence in Syria that would also impose sanctions against the country. He also said France planned to develop contacts with the Syrian opposition, but did not specify how. Last month, Syrian dissidents established a “national council” in a meeting in Istanbul to coordinate a campaign to oust President Bashar al-Assad from power. “Our objective is to obtain a resolution at the security council condemning the use of violence against civilians and organizing a regime of sanctions,” Juppe told an annual conference of French ambassadors in Paris. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the world community to target Syrian oil and gas exports and again urged Mr Assad to step aside.
Activists on their Facebook page Syrian Revolution 2011 defiantly called for fresh protests on Friday, the Muslim weekly day of prayers and rallying point for demonstrations. The rallies will be held under the slogan of "death rather than humiliation," it said. "We are ready to die in the millions as martyrs."  In Paris, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the world community should escalate pressure on President Bashar al-Assad by targeting Syria's oil and gas exports to force him from office.
"The violence must stop and he needs to step aside," Clinton told reporters in Paris after a meeting Thursday on Libya, where strongman Moamer Kadhafi has already been forced from office.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has said the international community should support Syrians opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, following the success of UN-backed action in Libya.
"Libya is undergoing a historic moment which paves the way for the development of democracy", after 42 years of iron-fisted rule by Muammar Gaddafi, Zapatero said in a statement late Thursday.
"This example should extend to other countries like Syria (where people are) fighting for freedom and to whom the international community should give its wholehearted backing," he said.
"The international community has shown that when it is united, that when the United Nations enforces the decisions taken by its Security Council, it can achieve its objectives in a few months after 42 years of the Gaddafi regime."
The statement was issued after world leaders meeting in Paris unblocked $15 billion in funds to help Libya's rebels rebuild their shattered country. France also announced plans to further isolate Assad, saying it would boost contacts with the opposition, echoing calls from Spain for international support for the opponents of the president.
In other news, Syria's SANA state news agency reported that the resignation of Adnan Bakour, the Hama attorney-general, is not true, as Bakour had been "kidnapped on August 29 by an armed terrorist gang", which "forced him to present his resignation".
Below is a rough translation of the original article in Arabic:
"Media channel are continuing their incitement and spreading false and fabricated news about events in Syria. The channels aired an internet clip for the Hama prosecutor, Adnan Bakour, who was kidnapped by an armed terrorist gang on Mon Aug 29, and forced him to present his resignation.
"These channels ignored the news about his kidnap to give yet another evidence of its bankrupt professionalism.
'The governor of Hama, Anes Naaim, told SANA, that Bakour was forced by his kidnappers to give false information about Hama, which these satellite channels have always sought. These channels have goals for this media campaign against Syria and they became partners in the crimes committed by the armed terrorist groups against the innocent people of Syria.
'On the morning Aug 29, a group of armed terrorists gangs kidnapped Judge Bakour as he was heading to his office in Al Adlia. He was taken on the road of Kafer Inbotha - Kernaz along with his driver Baha Al Youssef and aide Mohammed Sadrawi. When the judge reached Kernaz village, seven armed men carrying rifles and automatic weapons in a pick up truck intercepted his the car and took him by force and drove to an unknown area. 
"This incident stress again the participation of Al Jazeera channel and its leadership for the incitment of murder and aggression on Syria to serve a hidden suspicious agenda aimed at Syria's stability and its national unity ..."
The article includes an account from Bakour's driver Baha Youssef:
"... While we were heading to work to the court house in Hama, an armed terrorist gang intercepted our car, forced us out and fired one bullet in the air from a Kalashnikov. They then forced Judge Bakour into their vehicle - a white Mazda, number of plate was 9422, but there are two other numbers missing. I couldn't catch them because they were pointed their guns at me. Then they drove off and took my car as well."
The statement was released after a YouTube video emerged of the official saying that he has resigned in disgust at hundreds of killings and thousands of arrests by Assad's regime. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people -- including an 11-year child -- were killed and several more were wounded Thursday when security forces opened fire on protesters in the central region of Homs.
According to the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which groups activists on the ground, armoured cars entered the city of Homs itself.
The Britain-based Observatory also reported "one dead and five wounded in an assault by the army and security forces on the village of Al-Rama" in the northwestern province of Idlib, near the Turkish border. The deceased was a man in his seventies.
And the LCC said a young man was killed by pro-regime militiamen in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor. A 10-year-old girl died there of injuries sustained a day earlier, it added.
The security forces went into action on Thursday after mass demonstrations late on Wednesday in several districts of Homs, the Observatory said.
It said security forces also opened fire to disperse demonstrations in the country's second city of Aleppo, in the north.
The European Union is to formally adopt a ban on Syrian oil imports on Friday, but the embargo will not take effect until November 15 for existing contracts after Italy insisted on a delay, according to diplomats in Brussels.
They told AFP that the EU would also expand its list of people targeted by an assets freeze and travel ban. David Cameron, the UK prime minister, told Al Jazeera that "it's totally regrettable that the UN hasn’t been able to put forward a combined resolution properly on Syria".
"What [Assad is] doing to his people is disgraceful. It’s very good that UK, France and America and Germany and others and some Arab countries have been saying 'This man has got to go'", Cameron said. "That is a good start but we need to take more concerted action."
The UK and US are calling for a tougher stance on Syria as European nations consider new oil sanctions.
"Syria must be allowed to move forward," Clinton said on Thursday. "Those who have joined us in this call must now translate our rhetoric into concrete action to escalate the pressure on Assad and those around him."
This pressure must include "strong new sanctions targeting Syria's energy sector to deny the regime the revenues that fund its campaign of violence".