Syria's Assad vows to continue crackdown

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the crackdown on anti-government unrest in his country would continue in the face of pressure from the Arab League to end it, according to an interview published late on Saturday.        

"The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue," he told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. "Syria will not bow down."        

The Arab League, a powerful political group of Arab states, set a deadline on Saturday for Syria to comply with a peace plan, entailing a military pullout from around restive areas, and threatened sanctions if Assad failed to halt the violence.        

"If they are logical, rational and realistic, they shouldn't do it because the repercussions are very dire. Military intervention will destabilize the region as a whole, and all countries will be affected," he said.        

The Sunday Times said Assad had promised to personally fight and die to resist foreign forces.        

Assad also vowed to prevent further attacks by the Free Syrian Army, which opposition sources said had killed or wounded at least 20 security police in an assault on an Air Force Intelligence Complex near Damascus two days ago.        

"The only way is to search for the armed people, chase the armed gangs, prevent the entry of arms and weapons from neighboring countries, prevent sabotage and enforce law and order," he told the paper.        

-Reuters