BERLIN, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Germany has kicked out four
Syrian diplomats after the arrest in Berlin earlier this week of
two men suspected of spying on Syrian opposition activists in
the country, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
"After the arrest of two suspected spies, I have ordered
four members of the Syrian embassy in Berlin to be expelled,"
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement.
German prosecutors believe the two men, arrested on Tuesday,
had been spying for years for the intelligence services of
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad..
The Syrian ambassador in Berlin was summoned to the German
foreign office on Tuesday. "The German government made its view
quite clear once again that such behaviour against members of
the Syrian opposition was not acceptable in Germany," the
foreign ministry said in the statement.
In December, a Green politician for the city of Berlin with
a Syrian background, Ferhad Ahma, was beaten up in his flat. He
had been involved in activities against Assad's government and
several Green lawmakers linked the attack to Syria's secret
service.
Assad's bloody crackdown on an 11-month-old popular revolt
has killed more than 5,000 people by a U.N. count. Syria's
government says it is fighting foreign-backed Islamist
"terrorists" who have killed 2,000 soldiers and police.
Syrian forces extended their bombardment of opposition-held
neighbourhoods in the city of Homs with rocket and mortar fire
on Thursday, activists said, as divided world powers struggled
to find a way to end the violence.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Madeline Chambers;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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