BEIRUT: Supporters of President Bashar al-Assad shot dead two people in Syria on Monday, activists said, hours after he dismissed Western calls to step down and warned that any military action against his country would backfire.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said loyalist gunmen known as ‘shabbiha’ who were celebrating after Assad’s comments on Syrian television opened fire in Masyaf, west of the city of the central city of Hama, killing two people and wounding four. They also attacked shops belonging to Assad opponents, it said.
Assad faces growing Western calls to step down over his crackdown on more than five months of pro-democracy protests in which the United Nations says around 2,000 civilians have died. No country has proposed the kind of action against Syria which NATO forces have carried out in support of Libyan rebels seeking to topple Muammar Gaddafi. But the West has called on Assad to step down and Washington has imposed new sanctions.
Assad said Syria would not bow to external pressure, which he said could only affect ”a president made in the United States and a subservient people who get their orders from outside”.
Assad also said he expected a parliamentary election to be held in February after a series of reforms that would let political groups other than his Baath party take part. (UNI)