French soldiers captured by Syrian forces

A man carries a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) in Homs A Lebanese newspaper has reported that Syrian forces have captured 13 French soldiers, signifying the presence of a western ground intervention the war-torn country. The group are allegedly being held in a field hospital in the besieged city of Homs, according to source, The Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon reported.
Officials in Paris and Damascus are said to be brokering a deal on what to do with the French nationals, the unnamed source claimed.
No explanation as to why the French troops had been in Syria was given nor was any indication as to whether they had been part of a larger contingent.
Foreign Office officials in France said there was "no confirmation" that members of its armed forces were being held, according to the report. They also did not confirm whether military personnel were operating on a regular basis in the country.
Damascus has not commented on the presence of French troops on Syrian soil. However, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said last month it had no intention of intervening in the country as with Libya.
"No, I don't think so because Syria is also a different society, it is much more complicated ethnically, politically, religiously. That's why I do believe that a regional solution should be found," he said.
Homs, 20 miles from the Lebanese border, remains a strategic battleground with forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad unrelenting in their bombardment of the area and anti-Assad demonstrators continuing their protests against the tyrannical dictator.
Activists on Monday reported heavy fighting overnight between Assad's forces and rebels who launched coordinated attacks on army roadblocks across the southern city of Deraa on the border with Jordan, opposition activists said on Monday.
As many as 60 people were killed on Sunday by the fire of Syrian forces, mostly in Homs and Rastan, Syrian activists have said.
The report did not say whether the French troops were part of the mission to evacuate the reporters, who had been holed up in a safe house for one week following the deadly shelling.
Accounts of the escape have only mentioned rebel help, although French Ambassador Eric Chevallier returned to Damascus last week to discuss extracting the journalists safely.
France, Britain and Switzerland recently joined the US by announcing the closure of their embassies in Damascus.
The Syrian authorities have reportedly begun "removing debris" from the devastated Baba Amr area of Homs. Before it fell to the Syrian army last Thursday, an official ominously said that the area would be "cleaned". There is little information about the fate of up to 20,000 residents thought to be there when the siege began four weeks ago.
Activists reported government raids in Hama, and heavy shelling in the town of Rastan, north of Homs, where rebels have been hiding.
Clashes between Syrian troops and rebels, many of them army defectors, were reported in Jebel Al-Zawiya in Syria’s north, and activists said government forces had used tear gas to end an anti-Assad protest of around 1,000 people in the northern city of Aleppo.
The reports of the fighting in Deraa, where the uprising against Assad’s rule began last March, could not be independently verified.
But opposition sources say rebels loosely organised under the Free Syrian Army banner have intensified assaults on loyalist targets in southern, north and eastern Syria in the last few days to relieve pressure in the city of Homs, where troops overran the rebel district of Baba Amro last week.
“The Free Syrian Army attacked several roadblocks and street fortifications simultaneously. Tanks are responding by firing 14 mm anti-aircraft guns into residential neighbourhoods and army snipers are shooting at everything that moves, even nylon bags,” Maher Abdul Haq, one of the activists, told Reuters from Deraa.
“About 20 buses carrying troops were seen heading from the football stadium in the north to the southern sector the city on the border (with Jordan),” he added.
Syrian artillery also pounded the rebel city of Rastan on Sunday, monitors said.
The shelling of nearby Rastan came despite a call from China on all parties to “unconditionally” end the violence which reportedly sent more civilians fleeing across the border to Lebanon.
Rebels on February 5 declared Rastan “liberated” from Assad’s control, but since Homs was overrun by regime forces on Thursday, army deserters have been braced for an onslaught on Rastan and Qusayr, also near Homs, according to AFP.
An air force intelligence building at Harasta in Damascus province was also attacked by rocket-propelled grenades, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP, without providing further details.
The Red Cross, meanwhile, managed to get aid to Syrians fleeing fighting in the battered Baba Amro district of Homs, but was blocked for a third day from entering the former rebel bastion amid reports of bloody reprisals by state forces.
Activists reported shelling and other violence across Syria on Sunday, sending one of the biggest surges of refugees across the border into Lebanon in a single day since the anti-Assad revolt began a year ago.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had delivered food, blankets and medicine to the village of Abel, 3km (2 miles) from Homs, where a number of people had taken refuge, and described the development as a “positive step.”
But it was again prevented from entering Baba Amro, where rebels had faced nearly a month of siege and bombardment before abandoning their positions there on Thursday.
“It’s over for tonight. We will try again tomorrow,” said Saleh Dabbakeh, the ICRC’s Damascus-based spokesman. He declined to say why Syrian forces had blocked its entry.
Concern mounted for civilians left stranded in the district in freezing weather with little food, fuel or medicine.
Activists said the government was trying to prevent the Red Cross from witnessing “massacres” by Syrian soldiers hunting down and killing remaining rebels.
The United Nations’ refugee agency said up to 2,000 Syrians had fled the fighting for neighbouring Lebanon.
Refugees told Reuters of army shelling and gunfire in border towns.
Lebanon deployed more troops to its northern border in response to the violence in Syrian towns nearby, a Reuters witness said.
And in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, hundreds of soldiers and scores of military trucks and jeeps blocked off the city center during protests for and against Assad.
The United Nations claims security forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians since the revolt against the Assad family’s four-decade rule began in March last year.