Reports: 28 Dead As Syria Troops Attack Daraa Town

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Hundreds of soldiers backed by helicopter gunships attacked a town in southern Syria on Saturday, as at least 28 people were killed across the country, reports said.

"Tanks and hundreds of soldiers stormed Khirbet Ghazaleh amid heavy gunfire" following helicopter bombing raids, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, without providing any casualty figures.

An activist on the ground who identified himself as Bayan Ahmad gave a similar account, saying pro-regime militias were torching houses in Khirbet Ghazaleh.

"The shabiha (pro-regime militia) have carried out raids and set alight houses that inhabitants have abandoned," he said.

"The army entered without resistance as the rebel Free Syrian Army left town. The shelling has wounded dozens of people but we don't have medical resources to treat them," he added.

Khirbet Ghazaleh is situated in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of an uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad that erupted in March 2011.

Among Saturday's dead were 13 civilians, nine rebels and six soldiers, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Of the civilians, one was a pregnant woman killed in shelling of Qusayr city, but most of the deaths occurred in the central region of Hama, including from a blast, and in the northern province of Aleppo, near Turkey.

The bloodshed came a day after 118 people died in the country.

The violence has persisted despite an international outcry over the killing of more than 150 people in Treimsa village, in the central province of Hama, on Thursday.

It is not possible to independently verify death tolls in Syria. The United Nations stopped compiling such figures at the end of 2011.

The Observatory has said more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising erupted against the regime of Assad in mid-March last year.

Comments 1
Default-user-icon kafantaris (Guest) 16 July 2012, 02:50

Russia and China have their own interests alright: Preserving the status quo at home.
If they allow regime change in Syria, they also invite regime change on their doorstep. Why would they do that?
Better yet, why are the rest of us expecting them to do so?
Forget about it.
Russia and China will not lift a finger in Syria. And we are not going to wait for them anymore.
Instead, we will put together our own coalition and take care of necessary business -- just like we had done in Libya.
This time around, Russia and China had their chance to be part of the solution. They have sat it out -- less they also rattle their own house of cards.
Fine.
But their inaction has also committed them to getting out of the way. They can do so and still save face.
Either way, we should move forward.