Arab League agrees to Syria sanctions

Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon carry a Syrian flag Syrian forces killed at least 10 civilians on Sunday, six of them in the flashpoint region of Homs under siege for several weeks in an operation to crush dissent, a rights group said.The latest violence came as the Arab League prepared to vote on a set of diplomatic and economic sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime for defying an ultimatum to allow in observers.
Security forces killed one person during a raid in Bayyada district of Homs city, and another civilian was shot dead from the roof of a building in the town of Qusayr, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Four civilians were also killed in Al-Khalidiyeh when troops and security forces raided the neighbourhood of Homs city, said the Britain-based watchdog.
"Several people were wounded, some seriously and the death toll could rise," it added.
Near Damascus, two people were killed, including a 14-year-old boy, and 13 civilians wounded as troops fired "indiscriminately" and made arrests in a raid on Rankuss district, said the Observatory.
Security forces killed at least two people and wounded eight others when they shot at mourners during the funeral of a man who had died in the eastern oil hub city of Deir Ezzor, it said.
"Violent clashes" also erupted between regular army troops and deserters in the region of Talbisseh, another town in Homs province, said the watchdog in statements received in Nicosia. "Two troop transporters were destroyed."
In the southern province of Daraa, cradle of eight months of dissent against Assad's autocratic regime, mutinous soldiers attacked a military bus, wounding several troops, it said.
Security forces also arrested 17 people in raids on the village of Muhsen in Deir Ezzor province, it added.
On Saturday, at least 23 civilians and 12 members of the security forces were killed in clashes across the country, activists said.
Arab League foreign ministers were scheduled to vote in Cairo later Sunday on imposing the sanctions, which include a ban on Syrian officials visiting any Arab country and the freezing of government assets.
Finance ministers from the Arab League have agreed on a draft plan for a package of economic sanctions against Syria, including the suspension of commercial flights to the countryand dealings with the central bank.
The decision came after a meeting of the league's economic and social committee in Cairo on Saturday night. Its recommendations will now be passed to the full Arab League for consideration.
The organisation had set a Friday deadline for Damascus to allow rights monitors into the country, but the deadline passed with no firm commitment from Syrian officials.
The sanctions package also calls for Arab states to freeze the overseas bank accounts of Syrian key officials.
Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Muallem criticised the decision in a letter to the Arab League, accusing it of trying to "internationalise" the conflict in Syria.
Muallem called the sanctions an invitation "for foreign intervention instead of a call to avoid one... what we understand, by this latest Arab League decision, is a tacit green light for the internationalisation of the situation in Syria and to meddle in its domestic affairs."
The sanctions were strongly opposed by both Lebanon and Iraq, which have both said they will not impose sanctions against their neighbour. Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said on Saturday that it was "not possible" to impose economic sanctions on Syria due to its commercial ties with Iraq and the large number of Iraqi refugees there.
The US and the European Union have already imposed major sanctions, including an oil embargo, on the Syrian leadership.Activists in Syria said that at least 29 people were killed on Saturday, most of them in Homs province, and that army defectors killed eight Syrian soldiers.
The violence followed another bloody day on Friday, when activists said 26 people were killed, most of them in Homs. The province also saw an ambush which led to the killing of 10 security personnel, including six elite military pilots, according to the Syrian armed forces quoted by the state-run SANA news agency.
The military blamed "terrorists" for the attack, and threatened to "cut every evil hand" that targets the country's security.
The Syrian leadership blames the unrest in the country on a foreign plot, saying "armed terrorists" are driving the uprising.