United Syrian opposition appeals for help

A new Syrian council seeking to unify efforts to overthrow President Bashar Assad has called on the international community to protect Syrian civilians. The umbrella Syrian National Council, claiming to represent opposition groups inside and outside the country, called on governments and civil society to protect the Syrian people in the face of the Assad regime's violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests. "The council demands international governments and organizations meet their responsibility to support the Syrian people, protect them and stop the crimes and gross human-rights violations being committed by the illegitimate current regime," said the statement, released and read out loud at a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkey, which borders Syria, is where thousands of Syrian refugees, including top military defectors, have fled since the anti-Assad uprising began March 15. The council statement said the Assad regime had declared a "war" against civilians and had committed "massacres" against them. The regime insists it is fighting against armed gangs of terrorist thugs backed by foreign forces, which it claims are responsible for the unrest. More than 2,700 people have been killed in the crackdown, U.N. figures indicate. The Syrian government says the dead include more than 700 security personnel killed by the "armed terrorist groups," including five security police members killed in Syria's northwest Ghab region Sunday. The regime puts the total death toll at about 1,400. The official Syrian Arab News Agency also said anti-Assad terrorists used explosives to derail a freight train in Syria's northwest Idlib province Sunday. The agency said Syria's army Saturday regained control of Rastan, one of the largest cites in Syria's central Homs province, after five days of fierce fighting. While the opposition council appealed for humanitarian assistance and protection, it rejected foreign intervention, including military involvement, that "compromises Syria's sovereignty," the statement said. Prominent secular dissident and council Chairman Burhan Ghalioun told reporters the council -- formed in 2005 and now revived -- intended to be a vehicle for democratic change. It seeks to achieve "the wishes and hopes of our people in overthrowing the current regime ... including the head of this regime," Ghalioun, a political scientist and sociology professor at Paris' Sorbonne University, said, reading from the statement. Its members include Syria's pro-democracy Damascus Declaration network, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, various Christian and Kurdish factions and the grassroots Local Coordination Committees, which have led and reported on nationwide street protests, along with independent and tribal figures, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported. The council consists of three bodies -- a General Assembly, a General Secretariat and an executive committee -- with council leadership rotating, Bassma Kodmani, another Paris-based Syrian academic said at the news conference. Washington had no immediate comment on the council. The Assad regime dismissed the opposition group as part of a foreign conspiracy.