DAMASCUS: The UN Security Council was to hold a second day of talks on Syria on Tuesday after President Bashar Al-Assad's tanks shelled the protest hub of Hama on the opening day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 24 civilians were reported killed across Syria on Monday, an activist said, among them 10 during protests after special evening prayers. "Ten martyrs fell and several people were wounded by gunfire from security forces during protests in several Syrian towns after the 'taraweeh' evening prayers," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. Syrian tanks shelled the outskirts of Hama late on Monday, he said. The death toll on the first day of the Ramadan fasting month was 24, while more than 150 people were detained on Monday evening. The fresh violence came as the Security Council held a first session of emergency talks on the deadly crackdown, with Western powers again demanding a condemnation of the violence, but the closed session ended with no agreement. A top UN official told the meeting that on top of 140 people reported killed in a military offensive on Sunday, 3,000 people have gone missing and 12,000 been taken prisoner since the anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March, diplomats said. Britain, France, Germany and Portugal hope to revive a formal resolution condemning Assad's crackdown, a move which will be discussed on Tuesday. Diplomats said, however, that it was more likely the Security Council would agree a statement, with no warning of UN action. The UN meeting came after Assad showered praise on his troops to mark Army Day, saying in a speech that the military had "proved its loyalty to its people, country and creed." "Its efforts and sacrifices will be admired. These sacrifices succeeded in foiling the enemies of the country and ending sedition, preserving Syria." Russia and China, two of the five permanent Security Council members with veto powers, had threatened to block past attempts to pass a resolution on Syria. Brazil, India and South Africa had also spoken out against a resolution or statement. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, on a three-day visit to India, which on Monday assumed the rotating presidency of the UN's top body, called on New Delhi to use its influence on the Security Council to thwart the West. "I am here to brief the Indian leadership against the prefabricated misinformation and on the unrealistic propaganda machinery against Syria," Mekdad said in a television interview. "Some circles in the West and in the United States want to aggravate the situation in Syria by supporting terrorist groups against the will of the overwhelming majority of the Syrian people," he said. Diplomats in New York, meanwhile, said all countries expressed concern about the intensifying crackdown and there was now wider acceptance that the Security Council must act. US ambassador Susan Rice said an "alarming" briefing on events in Syria had been given by UN assistant secretary general Oscar Fernandez-Taranco. "There was pretty widespread expression of concern, or expression of condemnation," she told reporters after the meeting. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the holdouts to reconsider. "And we call on the international community to come together behind the people of Syria in this critical time," she said. The European Union on Tuesday added five people including Syrian Defense Minister Ali Habib Mahmud and four others to its blacklist of individuals and businesses associated with the ongoing repression. The EU's official journal also showed that the extended list includes Mohammed Mufleh, head of Syrian military intelligence in Hama, and Major General Tawfiq Yunis, head of "internal security" in the General Intelligence Directorate. Mohammed Makhlouf, also known as Abu Rami, an uncle of Assad, is on the list. Italy has recalled its ambassador in Damascus for consultation given the "horrible repression against the civilian population," the foreign ministry said in Rome on Tuesday. On Sunday, Syrian forces killed around 140 people across the country, including more than 100 in Hama, scene of an Islamist revolt in 1982 that was crushed at the cost of an estimated 20,000 lives. More than 1,60O civilians and 369 members of the army and security forces have been killed since March 15 in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory. Abdel Rahman also reported that tanks on Monday entered Al-Bukamal, on the border with Iraq, two weeks after troops surrounded the town which official media said was used to smuggle in weapons and money.
