U.S. pulls out envoy from Syria over safety

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it had pulled its ambassador out of Syria because of threats to his safety, prompting Syria to follow suit in a deterioration of ties already battered over President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown against protesters.

U.S. envoy Robert Ford had antagonised Syria's government with his high-profile support for the demonstrators trying to end 41 years of Assad family rule. Assad supporters attacked the U.S. embassy and Ford's convoy in recent months.

Ford left Syria as a government crackdown on protests and a nascent armed insurgency intensified and as more businesses and shops closed in southern Syria in the most sustained strike of the seven-month uprising.

In the central city of Homs, 140 km (85 miles) north of Damascus, eight people were killed when troops and militiamen fired at majority Sunni Muslim districts that have been a bastion for protests and, lately, a refuge for military defectors leading armed resistance, residents said. Syria is dominated by Assad's minority Alawite sect.

The killings brought to at least 16 the number of civilians killed in tank-backed assaults on districts in Homs in the last two days, activists said.

The United States has called for Assad to step down and, along with European allies, has intensified sanctions on Syria, including against its small but significant oil sector, a central source of foreign currency for the government.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement saying Ford "was brought back to Washington as a result of credible threats against his personal safety in Syria."

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Ford was expected to return to Syria and demanded the Syrian government provide for his protection and end what she called a "smear campaign of malicious and deceitful propaganda" against him.

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