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Activists Say Syrian Troops Kill 50 in Homs |
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Thursday, 9 February 2012Syrian rights activists say government forces have killed at least 50 people in an ongoing assault on the central city of Homs, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has pledged to consider sending a joint U.N.-Arab League team to Syria to monitor the escalating violence.
British-based activist say troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attacked Homs with gunfire, rockets and shells on Wednesday, heavily damaging more than 20 buildings in rebel-held districts. The activists say the government bombardment of Homs has killed hundreds of people since it began early Saturday. They say at least 13 other people were killed in violence around Syria Wednesday.
Syrian state media say "armed terrorists" detonated a car bomb in Homs, killing and wounding civilians and troops. State media also accused rebels of attacking the city's oil refinery.
In an opposition video, a young man named Danny Abou Diyne, working in a field clinic in the Homs district of Baba Amr, points to the dead body of a two-year old boy. He says the child was killed when a shell slammed into his house, destroying it.
“He's about two years old," he said. "He got hit in this war zone, in his house. Is this what the U.N. is waiting for, until there are no more children left? Until they kill all the children and all the women?
VOA cannot independently confirm the video or opposition figures concerning deaths because Syria restricts independent reporting.
Homs low on medical supplies
A doctor calling himself Mohammed Mohammed told Al Arabiya TV via webcam that he and his colleagues were working under extreme duress and that medical supplies were running low. He begged the world to pressure Syria to allow ambulances to evacuate the wounded.
Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in London told Alhurra TV that the government shelling was creating a human disaster. He added that it is difficult to get an exact casualty figure because many people were buried under the rubble.
Abdel Rahman also said pro-government militias killed 30 members of three families overnight when they stormed their homes on the outskirts of Homs. He called the killings “a massacre.”
Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, says Syrian military actions are taking place in a number of parts of the country and that most of the operations are under the command of President Assad's family members.
He says the military campaign is taking place in the northern district of Idlib, the southern Horan region bordering Jordan, in the outer suburbs of Damascus, as well as in Homs. He says top members of Assad's family, including his brother-in-law Assef Shawqut and his brother Maher, are directing the campaign, resembling the Gadhafi family's involvement in the fighting in Libya. |
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Edward Yeranian for VOA News in Cairo
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