SYRIA AIRSTRIKES, SHELLING KILL
100 DURING EID
ഈദ് ദിനത്തിൽ സിറിയയിൽ വ്യോമാക്രമണം: നൂറോളം പേർ കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ടു
Government forces pummelled the battered city of Aleppo with
airstrikes and tanks and shelled parts of Damascus and southern Syria Monday,
killing at least 100 people during the Eid, rights groups and activists said.The
crackdown escalated dramatically after a one-day lull on Sunday, the start of
the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday which marks the end of the holy month of
Ramadan. The renewed fighting showed President Bashar Assad's regime is not
letting up on its drive to quell the 17-month-old uprising out of respect for
the occasion.In Washington, President Barack Obama said U.S. thinking on
military involvement in Syria would change if chemical or biological weapons
came into play in the civil war. He told reporters the use of such weapons of
mass destruction would widen the conflict considerably."It doesn't just
include Syria. It would concern allies in the region, including Israel, and it
would concern us," Obama said, warning the Assad regime and "other
players on the ground" that the use or movement of such weapons would be a
"red line" for the United States. The U.S. has been reluctant to
intervene militarily so far.
Last month, the Syrian regime confirmed for the first time that
it possessed chemical weapons by threatening to use them in case of any foreign
aggression. The warning was seen as a sign of desperation as Assad's grip on
power slipped. It came shortly after opposition forces assassinated four of the
president's top security officials, the biggest blow to the regime in the
entire uprising.Since the holiday began on Sunday, an air of gloom has
blanketed the nation and activists said there have been no signs of jubilation.Adding
to the despair, two main activist groups — The Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights and the Local Coordination Committees — said that 12 bodies shot
execution style were found in the Qaboun district in the capital Damascus.
Activist Omar al-Khani said the bodies, which included two children, were found
on the side of a road with clear signs of torture on their bodies. Some were
naked, others handcuffed.
The discovery of bodies in similar condition is not uncommon in
Syria, particularly in the last few months as the uprising descended into a
civil war with heavy sectarian undertones.Most of the deaths Monday were a
result of tank and mortar shelling as well as clashes in the Damascus suburbs
of Daraya and Moadamiyeh, where some activists reported the regime used
helicopter gunships. The Observatory and others said up to 31 people were
killed.An activist, El-Said Mohammed, said some 30 troops along with a
tank defected to the opposition’s side in Moadamiyeh on Sunday, which may have
been the reason for Monday's shelling.Mohammed spoke by Skype from the Damascus area. His information
could not be verified.Both the Observatory, which relies on a network of
activists on the ground, and the LCC, reported at least 100 civilian deaths
across the country, a heavy toll for a single day. Anti-regime activists say
some 20,000 people have been killed since the revolt against Assad's rule began
in March 2011.
The rights groups and activists said the latest assaults by
tanks and warplanes caused two houses to collapse in Aleppo, Syria's largest
city, killing at least 14 people. The buildings were in the Al-Sakhour and Qadi
Askar neighbourhoods, said activist Mohammed Saeed, reached by Skype inside the
city. The reports could not be independently confirmed.Aleppo has been the
scene of daily battles for several weeks now, with forces loyal to Assad trying
to wrest control from the opposition forces without making much headway.
In the southern city of Daraa, birthplace of the uprising,
intense fighting between government troops and opposition forces killed 16
people, including two children and two women, the activist groups said.As it
battles for survival against the opposition forces, the regime has increasingly
resorted to the use of airstrikes, particularly in the north around Aleppo
where opposition forces have seized large swathes of territory.Fighter jets on
Monday bombed the town of Tel Rifat, 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Aleppo.
The town serves as the headquarters of one of the largest opposition forces groupings.
The bombing punched a crater six feet deep in the courtyard of a
high school and vocational school for girls and leveled five nearby homes. An
adjacent elementary and middle school for girls was also damaged, apparently by
strafing from fighter jets.No one was killed or injured in the airstrike,
residents said, because the school and the homes were empty. Most of the town's
35,000 people have fled due to frequent airstrikes and shelling. The same spots
were bombed on August 8.Residents said they didn't know why the area was
targeted. The Brigade of Unification, the largest opposition grouping fighting
in Aleppo province which has its headquarters in the town, has never been
directly targeted by government forces.
"They don't want there to be an educated society,"
said Hatem, who taught Islamic education at the school and came to inspect the
damage. "They want people to be ignorant so they don't ask for their
rights."He said two others schools in town had been damaged in previous government
strikes. He declined to give his full name for fear for retribution.The U.N.'s
new envoy to Syria acknowledged on Sunday that he had no concrete ideas to end
the conflict and that his mission would be difficult without a unified position
by the U.N. Security Council."The problem is not what I can do
differently, it is how others are going to behave differently," Lakhdar
Brahimi told The Associated Press at his Paris home on Sunday. "If they
spoke in one voice and were clearly supportive of what I will be doing on their
behalf, that is what I need," Brahimi said of what he seeks from the
Security Council.
"Without a unified voice from the Security Council, I think
it will be difficult," the former Algerian foreign minister added.
Brahimi was named Friday to replace former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as peace envoy to Syria. He served as a U.N. envoy in Afghanistan and Iraq and helped negotiate the end of Lebanon's civil war as an Arab League envoy. He said Annan's mission failed "because the international community was not as supportive as he needed them to be."Russia and China have used their veto power at the Security Council to block strong Western- and Arab-backed action against the regime of Syria's Assad.
Brahimi was named Friday to replace former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as peace envoy to Syria. He served as a U.N. envoy in Afghanistan and Iraq and helped negotiate the end of Lebanon's civil war as an Arab League envoy. He said Annan's mission failed "because the international community was not as supportive as he needed them to be."Russia and China have used their veto power at the Security Council to block strong Western- and Arab-backed action against the regime of Syria's Assad.
ഈദ് ദിനത്തില് സിറിയയിലുണ്ടായ
വ്യാപക വ്യോമാക്രമണത്തില് നൂറോളം പേര് കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ടു. സിറിയന് നഗരങ്ങളായ അലപ്പോയിലും ഇദ്ലിബിലുമാണ് ആക്രമണം ഉണ്ടായത്. ഈ നഗരങ്ങളിലെ വിമതരുടെ അധീനതയിലുള്ള പ്രദേശങ്ങളിലാണ് സ്ഫോടനങ്ങള് നടന്നത്.ഇദ്ലിബ് പ്രവിശ്യയുടെ തലസ്ഥാനമായ ഇദ്ലിബ് നഗരത്തില് യുദ്ധവിമാനങ്ങള് ബോംബ് വര്ഷിച്ചു. ആക്രമണത്തിൽ രക്ഷപ്പെട്ടവരെ
കണ്ടെത്താനുള്ള പ്രവര്ത്തനങ്ങള് നടന്നുവരികയാണ്.
സിറിയന് യുദ്ധവിമാനങ്ങളോ സഖ്യകക്ഷിയായ റഷ്യയുടെ വിമാനങ്ങളോ ആണ് ബോംബാക്രമണങ്ങള്ക്ക് പിന്നിലെന്നാണ് സൂചന. അലപ്പോയില് സിറിയന് സൈന്യവും വിമതരും തമ്മിലുള്ള ഏറ്റുമുട്ടലുകള്
കഴിഞ്ഞ കുറച്ചു മാസങ്ങള്ക്കിടെ കനത്തിരുന്നു. ഈദ് ആഘോഷങ്ങള് തുടങ്ങുന്ന തിങ്കളാഴ്ച വൈകുന്നേരം വെടിനിര്ത്തല് ആരംഭിക്കാനായിരുന്നു അമേരിക്കയും
റഷ്യയും തമ്മിലെത്തിയ കരാറിലെ പ്രധാന തീരുമാനം. ഇറാനും ലെബനീസ് സൈനിക ഗ്രൂപ്പ് ഹിസ്ബുള്ളയും കരാറിനെ പിന്തുണച്ച്
രംഗത്തുവന്നിരുന്നു.
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