Troops in Syria storm defiant town

The offensive in Rastan, just north of the central city of Homs and on the highway to Turkey, continued through yesterday morning, leaving at least 20 people wounded, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Rastan has emerged as a hotbed of dissent against Assad’s autocratic regime during six months of antigovernment protests, and alleged army deserters have frequently clashed there with the military and security forces in the past.

The Local Coordination Committees activist network, the Observatory, and other groups reported yesterday’s attacks in Rastan. They said the tanks and armored vehicles entered Rastan early yesterday and dozens of troops were deployed.

The United Nations estimates that more than 2,700 civilians have been killed in the government’s crackdown on the uprising that began in mid-March, inspired by the Arab revolutions that have toppled autocratic rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.

The Syrian government’s bloody crackdown has prompted the international community, including the United States and European nations, to impose stiff sanctions on the regime.

Assad insists the unrest is being driven by terrorists and Islamic extremists acting out a foreign conspiracy to fracture Syria.

Ignoring the mounting death toll from his government’s bloody crackdown, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem of Syria told the United Nations on Monday that external critics were to blame for the violence and for causing delays in Assad’s plans for democratic reforms.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly, he sought to paint the Assad regime as having been on the brink of wide-ranging democratic reforms when foreign-inspired religious radicals and armed groups forced the Assad regime to put down the rebellion to hold the country together.

Moallem said reforms “had to take a back seat to other priorities. Our overriding priority was facing the external pressures which were at times tantamount to blatant conspiracies.’’

The longtime foreign minister said that internal desires for reform “have been manipulated to future objectives which are alien to the interests and express desires of the Syrian people.’’