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AP
A rebel aims his rifle from inside the classroom of a school in Homs, Syria, on Wednesday.
A referendum in Syria that overwhelmingly approved a new constitution was "unlikely to be credible," the United Nations said on Monday as it urged the country to focus on bringing an end to its bloodiest turmoil in decades.
The Syrian Interior Ministry said on Monday that a reformed constitution, which could keep President Bashar Assad in power until 2028, had received 89.4 percent approval from more than eight million voters who cast their ballots on Sunday.
"While a new constitution and the end of the Baath party monopoly on power could be part of a political solution, a referendum must take place in conditions free of violence and intimidation," U.N. spokesman Eduardo del Buey told reporters.
"It is unlikely to be credible in the context of pervasive violence and mass human rights violations," he said.
Syrian dissidents and Western leaders dismissed as a farce Sunday's vote, conducted amid ongoing violence, although Assad says the new constitution will lead to multi-party elections within three months.
Earlier on Monday, Syrian artillery pummeled rebel-held areas of Homs before the announcement that a vote had approved a new constitution proposed by President Assad.
A Syrian activist group said Monday that 135 people have been killed across the country, including 64 who died while fleeing an embattled area in Homs. The Local Coordination Committees, one of the main Syrian activist groups, said the dead included three women, three children and four soldiers.
No clear successor to Assad's 'coup-proof' rule in Syria
Shells and rockets crashed into Sunni Muslim districts of Homs that have already endured weeks of bombardment as Assad's forces try to stamp out an almost year-long revolt against his 11-year rule.
"Intense shelling started on Khalidiya, Ashira, Bayada, Baba Amr and the old city at dawn," opposition activist Mohammed al-Homsi told Reuters from the city on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.
"The army is firing from the main thoroughfares deep into alleyways and side streets," he said, adding that at least two people had been killed.
Syria referendum goes ahead amid violence
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said later at least seven people had been killed by shelling in Baba Amr. The accounts of opposition activists were echoed by those from other observers, including the Red Cross.
As violence turns to war in Syria, the country votes on a referendum that would limit the government's powers. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
At least 59 civilians and soldiers were killed on Sunday in a violent backdrop to a referendum on a constitution that offers some reforms, but could enable Assad to keep power until 2028.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has said conditions in parts of Homs are worsening by the hour, has failed to secure a pause in the fighting to allow the wounded to be evacuated and desperately needed aid to be delivered.
"We are still in negotiations. Since the beginning, the objective has been to go in and evacuate people and bring in assistance. Every hour, every day makes a difference," ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said in Geneva.
New sanctions
European Union foreign ministers, meanwhile, agreed new sanctions against Assad's government on Monday, targeting its central bank and several cabinet ministers to try to curb funding for the government.
The measures, expected to be enforced this week, include prohibiting trade in gold and other precious metals with Syrian state institutions and a ban on cargo flights from Syria, officials said.
Syrian activist: 'You hear the sounds of torture all the time'
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the sanctions were crucial to putting pressure on Assad to end violence that has killed thousands of civilians over the last 11 months.
"I hope we will agree further sanctions today which will further restrict the access to finance in particular of the regime," Hague told reporters before the meeting.
Echoing comments by other ministers, Hague said any military involvement in Syria to lend support to anti-Assad rebels was off the table for now, even in the form of a peacekeeping force that some Arab states appear to favour.
"Of course for that to work properly there would have to be a peace to keep. At the moment we don't have that," he said.
Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said sanctions were the most the EU could do for now, saying it was the best that could be done without military intervention.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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- Pakistan finishes demolishing bin Laden house
- Syria activist: 'You hear the sounds of torture all the time'
- Taliban claims responsibility for deadly airport blast
- Mandela, 93, leaves hospital after minor surgery
- Canadian sled dog killings prompt new rules
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
Seems this propaganda sight has got this one wrong, more warmongering, else where the headline reads
Armed Group Shells Military Educational Complex in Homs
HOMS, SANA_An armed Terrorist Group on Monday shelled with mortars a military educational Complex in Homs, claiming the lives of two members and injuring 12 others.
If the Rebels (activist) are using schools from which to attack, the schools will be shelled. If the Rebels (activist) use homes for their attacks, homes will be shelled. If the Rebels (activist) would NOT attack from non-combatant areas, non-combatants would not be bombed and killed.
Rebel (activist) your referring to the Druze terrorists i presume.
arm the syrian rebels thru iraq and saudi arabia. they are begging you! also: stop apologizing for burning their bible. is it doing any good? one sincere apology was enough. after all, it was an accident. stand up, obama, and show some courage and leadership for a change!
Is thousands being killed in a Muslim nation a big deal?
All the Sryian and Iran dramas and propaganda are Sunni Saudi beastly rulers, their oil companies, lobbyists and thier paid pipers like many US, British and European polticians, UN and the whole bunchs' garbage like in Iraq.
We don't have any business in Syria or Iran.
If we intervene and help, after some time, a Quran may be burnt or some "innocent children and women" may be killed!
Saudis and their Sunni beastly rulers will be no where around at that time. They will be busy hiking oil prices and pocketing monies out of the windfalls and throwing a little percentage around.
We should kick out all the Saudi agents like Syrian observatory, human rights groups and other Saudi agents. Why are we tolerating these curses and liabilities?
Let them do their dirty seventh century desert laundry in some Muslim nation.
With Iraqi wars only Saudis and their agents benefitted and we are all in streets or about to go to streets with high manipulated oil prices.
Let Saudis and their Arab League send their brave armies to Syria and Iran as they did in Bahrain.
Let the Sunni Saudi beasts and their Arab League go to their hell in search of 72 virgins!
How many of the residents of Homs do you actually believe were allowed out to vote? The shelling continues just to insure only those Assad allows to vote will get to the polling places.
Vote, Ballots!! Who are they kidding; In this part of the world people vote with live ammunition; change comes when they shoot each other.
It's a process just because we do not support it is no reason for us to get involved. Just look at this combatant in the classroom with a mere rifle trying to shoot at an opponent using rockets & artillery from a distance greater than that rifle can reach!
When school resumes is he planning on taking up a position in a hospital? In civilized countries if you don't like the neighbor hood one moves---get your camel & ride out of town before your dead.
Vote, Ballots!! Who are they kidding; In this part of the world people vote with live ammunition; change comes when they shoot each other.
It's a process just because we do not support it is no reason for us to get involved. Just look at this combatant in the classroom with a mere rifle trying to shoot at an opponent using rockets & artillery from a distance greater than that rifle can reach!
When school resumes is he planning on taking up a position in a hospital? In civilized countries if you don't like the neighbor hood one moves---get your camel & ride out of town before your dead.
Muslims killing Muslims, just shocking!
That's just Assad, casting his own vote. Cuz that's the way he 'rolls'.
Ass-Head Assad's "referendum." "Don't vote for me, I'll KILL You. Vote for me and I might KILL you anyway." Islam's choice, How do you want to DIE?
An old Russian saying: "It is not the vote that counts. It is who counts the vote."
Keep Your Eyes On The Ball
CNN (the voice of the CIA)
After selling Libya
They are now trying very hard to sell Syria.
They Say " Assad is killing his people. His whole intent is to kill those that want Democracy"
Fact:
The rebels (revolutionaries) are with Al Qaeda (who has been sending in suicide bombers into Damascus)
And they are using the civilians as HUMAN SHIELDS.
CNN keeps saying all the people just want Democracy and they are just demonstrating peacefully and Assad is killing them.
They could give a rats as- about Democracy! Al Qaeda just wants to kill Americans and anyone else that sets foot on Moslem territory that is not a Moslem.
We got Arab Brotherhood in Egypt. Thanks CNN
We got the people attacking us while we were in Iraq now in charge in Libya. Thanks CNN
What is the CIA up too.
Putting extreme pressure on Israel ? Their neighbors are radicals now.
Does Israel want this? The armies of all those countries have been destroyed. Maybe Israel wins everything with a war now.
Everyone that can think knows that if Iran had the atomic bomb it would be suicide for their people if they ever used it.
Russia is aligned with Syria and Iran.
China is investing heavily in Afganistan and is therefore aligned with them.
12/22/2012 ?
LOL - the world is truly imploding!!!
Stock up on water, fuel, food and ammo. Everything crumbles just before x-mas this year. No need to buy the laste iPad for the kids.
Rogerbeard is right on. Assad has been ruling his people in peace. It is the Muslim Brotherhood (rebels) who are killing the innocent people and terrorizing the Christians over there. 12% of the population are Christians and Obama and his mimions are encouraging the slaughter.
roger - you are spot on. Obama is hell bent on democracy being what the ME countries want and he is dead wrong.
give weapons to the rebels to kill the russians and the chinks chinese
"All it would take to make things worse would be for a Rebel attack to occur against the Russian Naval Base there.."
I think the base is in the non-Sunni parts of Syria.But if they did attack the base,the Russians would surely fight back.They have an excellent record of killing terrorists in Chechnya.I figure they can handle the Al Qaeda supported rebels as well.
If things were so easy, then Russia and China would not have been in the map!
Look at how NATO forces fought the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and now fighting in Afghanistan.
In Vietnam, NATO forces (especially the US) had to flee from Saigon airport!
So don't imagine wars to be so easy. Russia and China know how much to back up whom!
They are not Israel or the gung-ho US, British, French and some European nations dancing as directed by Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists.
A rebel aims his rifle from inside the classroom of a school in Homs, Syria, on Wednesday.
And then they will claim all kinds of things when government forces raid and kill these terrorist rebels who are hiding in schools. So who is actually resposible for a conflict at a school? These Druze terrorists need to mentally mature as a group ( o i mean rebel fighters, lol)
I agree with you the children probably are not at school.But you can bet if the Syrian army attacks the rebels in the school.You'll see on the news "Assad forces attack school".
Seems uncle gets it but TNrebel went over your head. A defensible position, a school house in the middle of a city? Come on pick any building its the same dam thing. It was picked just for the purpose of propaganda if the police or military try to remove these terrorists from the school. And what about school hours do they just grab there weapons and leave so the children can go to school for a few hours. Your argument is not logical in the least.
Hey rebel guys , the school lunch bell just rang, your going to have to stop playing terrorist so we can teach the alphabet.
You would think that an article like this would actually provide a copy of the new Constitution or a link to it. Then we could see what the various provisions say and whether or not it is riggewd in Assad's favor in some form or fashion.
That aside, how can a new Constitution be formed and voted on when a very large segments of the population are disenfranchised and their free speech rights trampled on by the ravages of a civil war. Seems to me that the process is fundamentally flawed and , therefore, illegitimate
They will never show that or how many people voted because it would reveal that this article and the druze are just what they are BS and terrorists.
Illegitimate, try getting say campaign finance or a balance budget on a national ballot LOL. And you think a constitutional national ballot over there is illegitimate, we could even get one even if 99% of the population wanted it. You must be in a dream world.
Give them the bombs guns weapons and support they need. If they have oil or not.
Exactly Syria needs these thing to aid in fighting these druze rebel terrorists.
Let the Syrians kill each other. Let the Arab League stop the violence, assuming it even bothers them. It's in their neighborhood, let them expend the money and lives trying to "help" the Syrian rebels, not us.
Certainly the US doesn't want to get involved militarily with Syria because Iran would also become involved and we know we have the pre-emptive capability to take both Syria and Iran out dealing severe crippling damage in the first 24 hours before even a single aircraft is launched from a US carrier, In fact all Syrian/Iranian military and nuclear target coordinates are already entered into weopons targeting systems and every target can be eliminated, including those updated in real time by satellite. The aircraft onboard the carriers are there for cleanup work after the initial strike. Militarily Syria and Iran would be completely overwhelmed with their offensive capability being completely eliminated. The question is one of wether they are stupid enough to put the US on the defensive or in a postion of measured retaliatory incidents. Especially with that much firepower from three US Naval Fleets. That is the amount of military pressure in the region. And there are eight more active fleets. It would be the ultimate US option because if those naval forces are fired upon there is nothing stopping them from defending their ships.
The situation is a hairtrigger for a completely impossible unthinkable explosive escalation where it is complicated further because of Russia's presence and support of Syria and Assad's civilian massacre's as well as Russia potentially assisting Iran with its nuclear developments and they need to be called on that. It is Russia's last Cold War that has been hiding behind the "Iron Curtain" in Syria that has without a doubt emerged from behind that Iron Curtain. Their only way out is to pull out of Assad's Syria and possibly re-establish their economic ties after the regime has fallen. It is not the US's fault that Russia has been pulled into support of the Assad regime because of its military interests in the region based on US anti-missile technology they claim voids nuclear deterrence. If Russia re-assessed the position it has put itself in and pulled out of Syria or offered to help with humanitarian relief efforts, that would leave only China in opposition whose only interests remain half a world away for oil which the chinese should be exploring for their own resources and reserves.
Regime change in Iran is inevitable as long as it continues to "play" with nuclear technology on the basis of religious extremism and the fault of the Iranian leadership and its failure to recognize Israel, where it could otherwise be a stable fruitful economic relationship between the two countries, Iran is isolating itself more and more from the rest of its neighbors, and is a direct cause of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflicts where Iran's support of Hezzbollah only serves to deteriorate that situation. Eventually Iran will lose support from both Palestinians and Hezzbollah. If the current Iranian leadership is capable of enduring talks, negotiating actions on specific treaties, monitoring and oversight of nuclear materials, nuclear waste handling and storage we would have the entire middle east and world know that the US is prepared to push foward into areas of nuclear disarmament of current nuclear powers in the middle east as the US has the capacity for disarming and storing those materials. That is the level of discussion that needs to take place and where trust of the West needs to change policy in the middle east. If absolute total chaos is the ultimate goal of Iran, Syria or any other country...then that's their problem and those regimes like so many before will end in chaos.
Something tells me we'll soon be in the same boat as obama probably wont go quietly when he's ousted from the whitehouse this Nov..
Essay on the UN and human rights:
http://benevolentnwo.blogspot.com/2012/02/future-of-human-rights-and.html
Before imagining much in the air and then blowing more hot airs, one has to realize that Syria is in ME and a Muslim nation.
Which Muslim nation behaves differently from Syria?
Take it or leave it: Assad is far a better than the oil monies soaked seventh century despotic Sunni barbaric Saudi, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and many other nations.
There are limits to even spraying paints around the Sunni Saudi beasts or pushing them behind covers while describing and painting Assad or Iranian rulers.
How would any govt treat that "rebel" with the gun shown in the photo?
Assad should be more merciless and bomb all the al-Qaida and Saudi inspired rebels to pieces!
Let the Saudi puppets scream and dance to their full voices!
There are limits even to taking craps from these puppets. We had enough of them before and during Iraqi wars.
Two wars, Afghanistan and Iraq, about a decade, cost ~8000 U.S.A.soldiers' lives.
Hum .. the UN has no problem with the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power in Egypt. Yet, elections are held in Syria and the UN claims ths results are illegitimate. This is the same UN that looked away in 2009 when the Iranians were trying to have their so-called Arab Spring.