BEIRUT, Lebanon — Large crowds of Syrians rallied in the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday in support of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, while Syrian troops kept up an offensive in central Syria and battled army defectors in the east.
The show of support for Mr. Assad in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city and a mainstay of support for his leadership, came as the Syrian National Council, a leading opposition group, said it might seek foreign intervention to stop the government’s brutal crackdown on activists and protesters.
“It might include creating a buffer zone, it might include creating a no-fly zone,” said Najib Ghadbian, a representative of the council, at a news conference in Tripoli, Libya.
The United Nations authorized the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya in May by NATO forces, whose airstrikes helped rebel fighters topple the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
The government-organized rally in Aleppo, with turnout estimated in the tens of thousands, was similar to one held a week earlier in Damascus, the capital. The two rallies showed that Mr. Assad and his government still command support from a substantial part of the population seven months after the uprising started.
Syrian state television claimed that the turnout at the Aleppo rally was much greater — more than a million Syrians participated, it said — and people were shown singing, “We love you” and holding pictures of Mr. Assad. Others were shown waving Syrian, Chinese and Russian flags; Russia and China each vetoed a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution this month to take measures against Syria because of its crackdown on dissidents.
The United Nations issued new estimates last week of the crackdown’s toll: more than 3,000 people killed, including at least 187 children, with thousands more arrested, tortured or disappeared.
Activists said that at least 26 people were killed on Wednesday, 16 of them in the city of Homs, in central Syria, which has emerged as a flashpoint for protests. Three protesters were killed by security forces in towns on the outskirts of the capital.
A resident of Homs said armed forces loyal to the government were driving garbage trucks through the streets of the Nazeheen neighborhood and shooting randomly at people there. It was not possible to confirm the report, nor to discern the purpose of the raid.
“There is heavy gunfire and random shooting,” said one Homs resident reached by telephone who gave his name as Ahmad. “They are killing people for no reason.”
Activists also said that at least seven people had died in the town of Qusayr, near the Lebanese border, during clashes between the army and soldiers who had deserted their positions. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least seven soldiers had been killed in these clashes. Some residents said an entire battalion stationed in Qusayr had defected, but the report could not be confirmed independently. Syria has barred nearly all foreign journalists from entering the country.
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported that authorities had arrested “armed terrorists” in Qusayr and had confiscated their weapons and uniforms.
Syria says that foreign fighters seeking to divide the country are to blame for the unrest, and that they have killed more than 1,100 police officers and soldiers.
Continue reading the main story