EU to slap sanctions on Syria as death toll rises

After this, snipers and security forces killed four civilians Wednesday in Syria in flashpoint province of Homs.The latest bloodletting also came as US President Barack Obama called on the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Syria in a speech at the General Assembly in New York.And in Geneva the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that more than 2,700 people have been killed in Syrias bloody crackdown on protesters by regime forces since mid-March.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, quoting residents, said snipers shot dead a man in the Baba Amro neighbourhood of the city of Homs and killed another in the town of Rastan, in the central province.It also charged that security forces shot dead a man and a woman in the city of Homs, while another man wounded earlier this month died Wednesday of his injuries.Meanwhile, security forces arrested three wounded people in a Homs hospital and took them to an unknown destination, the Observatory said.And the body of a young man was found on Wednesday in Al-Huweiz village, in Hama province further north, days after he was arrested by security forces, the Observatory said.The bodies of two other men were also handed over to relatives Wednesday in the northwestern province of Idlib, where army and security troops have been conducting operations over the past few days, it said.Activists meanwhile reported that security forces arrested prominent dissident lawyer Imad Drubi on Wednesday while he was inside the main Homs courthouse.And the parents of prominent pianist Malek Jandali were beaten up by pro-regime militiamen because of his support for pro-democracy protests, the Syrian Human Rights Committee said Wednesday.The shabiha militiamen have beaten the elderly parents of the pianist because of the sympathy shown by their son for the revolution of freedom and dignity, the group said.Jandali, 39, who was born in Germany but grew up in the flashpoint central Syrian city of Homs, is an internationally known pianist and composer.The latest UN estimates show that the death toll in Syrias crackdown on dissent has increased by over 100 to more than 2,700 people killed since mid-March, said human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani in Geneva.More than one hundred were reportedly killed in the week between the 12th and 19th of September, she said, adding that reports of killings continue to pour in.Frustrated with the regimes failure to heed global calls to halt the bloodshed, the 27-member EU prepared to slap a 7th set of sanctions against Syrian on Saturday, diplomats said.The new sanctions will include a ban on investments in the oil sector and on delivering bank notes and coins made in Europe, and will also target six firms and two individuals directly linked to the regime who are part of Assads inner circle, one diplomat said.Earlier this month, the EU adopted a ban on crude oil imports, designed to hit hard at Damascus as the EU buys 95 percent of Syrias oil exports, providing a third of the regimes hard currency earnings.Saying there was no excuse for inaction when people were being tortured and murdered by their government, Obama called for formal UN sanctions on Syria over the bloody repression.