Syria, Iran and Middle East unrest

Syria

• Security forces loyal to the Assad regime have raided the Bab Amr area of Homs, arresting people and storming houses in the latest stage of their efforts to stifle dissent. Regime troops entered the district last night and remained there today, continuing a crackdown that has seen Homs become a besieged city according to activists. They reported several more deaths, bringing the death toll for the past week in Homs to over a hundred. This could not be independently verified.

• One of the victims was an eight-year-old girl caught in gunfire in the Houla district of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On the internet an extremely graphic video circulated of a young girl with apparently fatal head wounds. It was not known whether they were the same girl.

• The Syrian opposition called for international action to stop the "humanitarian disaster" taking place in Homs. The Local Coordinations Committee (LCC) said "indiscriminate slaughter" was being committed by the regime's militias across the city. It also said that inhabitants of the besieged city were suffering from a lack of medicines, food and water. An LCC spokesman told the Guardian the situation was "catastrophic" (see 1.52pm.)

• Demonstrations were held in towns and cities across Syria in support with those in Homs. In Damascus, Aleppo, Hama and Kafromah- among other places- Syrians chanted anti-Assad slogans and waved banners.

• Syria has asked the Arab League for its support in the face of alleged US involvement in the country's "bloody events". In a letter, foreign minister Walid Muallem asked the body to condemn the role. The move comes four days before the League is due to meet to discuss Damascus's failure to keep to the agreement announced last week. (See 5.10pm.)
Yemen

• European foreign ministers will next week discuss freezing the assets of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, the French foreign minister said. Speaking after a meeting with Nobel peace laureate Tawakul Karman, Alain Juppé said the discussion would take place "as soon as possible", probably at next week's meeting in Brussels. (See 3.25pm.)

• Security forces killed six militants and wounded many others in fighting in the country's restive south, raising to 11 the number of Islamists killed in the area in two days, news agencies reported. The clashes, which took place early this morning in the city of Zinjibar, the capital of the southern province of Abyan, were between security forces and al-Qaida-linked militants, according to an official.
Iran

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at the United States and Israel, accusing them of seeking world support for an attack on his country. He told an Egyptian newspaper: "Iran's [nuclear] capabilities are increasing and it is progressing, and for that reason it has been able to compete in the world. Now Israel and the West, particularly America, fear Iran's capabilities and role."

• The comments came in response to an interview by the Israeli president Shimon Peres in which he said military action was "now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option." On Sunday the Washington Post previewed a report by the IAEA expected on Wednesday, which warned that Iran had made key advances in nuclear technology. Russia and China have both warned the West against sabre-rattling on the issue.

5.18pm: There is some very disturbing footage apparently coming out of Homs today. One video- warning: extremely graphic- shows the body of a young girl lying on a carpet in a pink top.

She appears to have very serious head wounds. In the background men are heard shouting and women crying.

The girl's name, says the man speaking on the footage, is Maymouna al-Sayed. He says she was martyred- or killed- today in the Houla district of Homs during heavy sniper fire.

"Are these your reforms, Bashar?" asks a man repeatedly, referring to the commitment to change the Syrian president supposedly made last week with the Arab League.

Thanks to my colleague Mona Mahmood for the translation. We cannot verify the video's authenticity. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the death of an eight-year-old girl in Houla today, but has not yet said whether this was Maymouna.

5.10pm: The Arab League has received a letter from Damascus asking for its support in the face of supposed American involvement in "bloody events", the organisation has said in a statement.

The statement said the letter from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused Washington "of actual involvement in bloody events in Syria" and asked the League to "condemn the involvement and to do what is necessary to end it," according to AFP.

The statement did not elaborate on the accusations of US involvement in the Syrian bloodshed.

In the letter, Syria, which is under growing pressure to implement an Arab plan to end violence against protesters, sought Arab assistance "to provide the appropriate atmosphere to implement the agreement," said the statement.

4.47pm: This video, apparently shot in Bab Amr yesterday, gives a good idea of the kind of resistance which had recently been operating from the district.

Continue Reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/middle-east-live/2011/nov/07/syria-iran-middle-east-unrest-live