U.S. Closes Embassy, Pulls Diplomats From Syria as Violence Intensifies

The United States has closed Monday its embassy in Damascus and pulled all diplomats and U.S. staff out of the country, the State Department said Monday.

The decision comes two days after Russia and China vetoed a United Nations resolution condemning Syria’s violent repression of anti-government demonstrators, whose opposition to the government is threatening to become an all-out civil war.
 Protesters opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad face violent responses from security forces.
As violence relating to the revolt and the crackdown edged closer to the capital, U.S. officials increasingly expressed concern about the security of the relatively lightly-protected embassy building.
Diplomats had been negotiating with Syrian authorities to be permitted to bring in extra staff and take further measures to secure the embassy, but had met with resistance from officials.
 “We have serious concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Damascus, including the recent spate of car bombs, and about the safety and security of embassy personnel,” the State Department said last month.
A twin car bombing in December, which killed dozens of people, many of them from the security forces, marked the first time such a tactic had been used in the city.
Syrian authorities blamed the blast on al-Qaeda. Syrian media have reported a number of subsequent explosions, including a bus bomb in the neighborhood of Midan on Jan. 6.
Elsewhere in Syria on Monday, a further escalation of violence was reported Monday by residents of the city of Homs, who said that a barrage of heavy artillery fired by the army had hit the city.
The artillery struck a field hospital in the neighborhood of Baba Amr, a center of opposition to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Heavy artillery shook houses near Zabadani, a town where opposition fighters negotiated a truce with security forces more than two weeks ago.
The onslaught has been going on for several days, said local residents, who said friends and relatives in Zabadani had not been allowed to leave. Soldiers did not allow outsiders to access the town.