Scores Killed as Syrian Regime Pounds Homs

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

Syrian forces pressed a relentless assault on the protest city of Homs Wednesday, with dozens of civilians reported killed.

The barrage of gunfire, mortars and shells was launched at daybreak and continued during the day. State television said a car bomb had ripped through the central city, killing and wounding civilians as well as security officers.

The blast hit the neighborhood of Bayada, the television reported, blaming "armed terrorist gangs." If confirmed, the attack would be the first of its kind in Homs.

Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 62 people were killed across the country on Wednesday, including 50 in Homs.

Among those killed in the beleaguered city were three entire families slain overnight by pro-regime thugs known as Shabiha, he said. They included at least three children aged five, seven and 15.

The most intense shelling was in Baba Amr, where at least 23 buildings were completely destroyed, including a home hit by a rocket that killed a little girl.

Activists in Homs said the widespread shelling was a clear bid to pave the way for a ground assault on Syria's third city.

"Since dawn the shelling has been extremely intense and they are using rockets and mortars," Omar Shaker, reached by satellite telephone from Beirut, told Agence France Presse.

"They have destroyed all infrastructure and bombed water tanks and electricity poles. The humanitarian situation is extremely dire and food is lacking.

"We are trying to set up a field hospital but we have no medical supplies."

The shelling intensified as tanks were reportedly moving toward the city from Damascus, said Hadi Abdullah, another activist.

"We fear a new massacre," he told AFP by satphone.

Ali Hazouri, a doctor in Baba Amr, said a field hospital had been hit and several physicians were wounded, some critically.

"One rescuer from the Red Cross had both legs blown off in the shelling," he said. "We have shut down the hospital and are treating the wounded in their homes."

Paris-based aid agency Doctors Without Borders accused the regime of persecuting medics who treat the wounded, as well as denying medical care to opponents.

As the regime forces tightened their grip, severing power, communications and other supplies, state media reported "terrorists" attacked Homs' oil refinery.

The authorities frequently blame "terrorists" for attacks on infrastructure, while its opponents accuse the regime of carrying them out to punish centers of resistance.

The Observatory has reported several hundred civilians killed since the onslaught on Homs, a central junction city of 1.6 million inhabitants, was launched overnight Friday.

In southern Syria on Wednesday, troops used heavy gunfire after an army officer and 17 soldiers defected in the Daraa region, cradle of the uprising against Assad's 11 years of iron-fisted rule.

Rights groups estimate more than 6,000 people have died in nearly a year of upheaval in the country, as Assad's hardline regime seeks to snuff out the revolt that began in March with peaceful protests amid the Arab Spring.

Western and Arab efforts to address the violence have met resistance from Russia, whose foreign minister said after meeting Assad in Damascus on Tuesday that the Syrian leader was "fully committed" to ending the bloodshed.

Comments 26
Default-user-icon Trueself (Guest) 08 February 2012, 09:32

Its heart wrenching what is happening in syria from killings, rapings and atrocities that the human mind could not fathom, let alone come to terms with. What amazes me, though, is these so called religious people in Iran and of Huzbullah who are standing in support of a regime that kills humans in numbers. Aren't they scared of God wrath on them? I believe that these religious people are not religious, they are demons on earth dressed in religious fatigues. I am really disappointed from everything that has to do with religious and time and again religion has proven to be dividing instead of uniting. If only could we not mix religion with politics so that we could live in peace.

Default-user-icon yaacov benyamin ha-kohen ben-arieh (Guest) 10 February 2012, 15:28

bless you & your words of wisdom. may they come true. shalom, salaam, peace from jerusalem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HHTIrAx-0Y

Default-user-icon Mambolayo (Guest) 08 February 2012, 11:14

Welcome to the Geagea Club of Predictions, whose license to resume their operation was re-instated sometime in 2005. Foreign members also qualify to join.

Default-user-icon Le phénicien (Guest) 08 February 2012, 18:50

Shut up Mambolayo , no one has more accurate predictions that the magnificent GMA period ! For example we all saw him last November 8th in all his magnificence telling the world that by next Tuesday the troubles in Syria would be over , and of course they were .
Honorable mention ( to name only a few ) goes to :
Mr Bashar Assad - 31 Jan 2011 and ... 2012
Mr Homar Karame - 10 Mar 2011 and 30 Sep 2011
Prince Talal Arselan - 16 Oct 2011 and 01 Nov 2011

Missing allouchi 08 February 2012, 20:00

Mambo, you are an idiot....you're not saying anything justbla blah...go get a life.

Default-user-icon American Lebanese (Guest) 08 February 2012, 15:34

Trueself.... How true it is

Missing allouchi 08 February 2012, 15:58

These killings must stop. I hope the butcher of Damascus will fall soon.

Missing vaclav_havel 08 February 2012, 17:00

http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2012/02/08/la-medecine-arme-de-la-repression-en-syrie_1640356_3218.html#ens_id=1481132

Default-user-icon Dosto Josefski (Guest) 08 February 2012, 17:32

The more thugs, criminals and Sunni crazies from all Arab nationalities there are, the more will get killed. It is the law of proportion, my friends.

Missing eldofar 08 February 2012, 18:08

Hopefully, this the beginning of the end of the Assad's regime...Nobody is able to help Syrian people...Let's prey to God to give them strength to get rid of the killer

Thumb jabalamel 08 February 2012, 18:40

the filthy zionist media terrorists are still hoping that soon will be the end of assad regime

Missing peace 08 February 2012, 21:43

jabalahbal the zionist has spoken...

Default-user-icon Nefertiti (Guest) 08 February 2012, 23:13

the "filty zionist media" didn't place Lebanese citizens in syrian jails and torture them. the "filty zionist media" didn't bury all the Lebanese bodies which have been uncovered in MASS GRAVES around Lebanon. stop living in disgusting denial ya empty jabal.

Default-user-icon majd (Guest) 08 February 2012, 18:56

Whether it's Achrafieh or Homs no difference, the Syrian regime is always right and will purge the terrorist wherever they are.

Default-user-icon majd (Guest) 08 February 2012, 18:56

Whether it's Achrafieh or Homs no difference, the Syrian regime is always right and will purge the terrorist wherever they are.

Default-user-icon John from Koura (Guest) 08 February 2012, 19:51

A poll was recently conducted by the University of Maryland and Zogbi international about Arab public opinion (Google it). It asked which countries you find it a threat. The US was 88%, Israel 77%, and Iran only 9%. Remember, most Arabs are Sunni. The Gulf leaders are scared to death, and they are spending billions to turn the Sunni populations against the Shiite to cover their slavish role toward Israel and the US.

Default-user-icon lebo (Guest) 09 February 2012, 04:27

john, your poll is from 2008 numbnut (Google it) keep holding on to it. I read a poll the other day that shows President Eisenhower's approval rating at a whopping 78%, how about that impressive ain't it what do you think his chances at re-election is john humm?.

Default-user-icon John from Koura (Guest) 09 February 2012, 15:49

Lebo, the poll was released yesterday and it was taken in 2010. We are talking about a little over 1 year! Eisenhour was not president ...the same OBAMA and Netanyahu killers are. The American Israelis have been saying that the Arabs fear Iran for the last 30 years, and ALL polls have shown that the ENEMY have always been America and Israel

Default-user-icon John from Koura (Guest) 08 February 2012, 22:40

A new poll conducted by the University of Maryland and the Zogbi international group in the Arab world (Google it)showed that 88% of Arabs consider the USA a threat, 77% consider Israel a threat, and only 9% consider Iran a threat (most Arabs are Sunnis). This is why the WEST and their wealthy Arab puppets are going after the Syrian regime to distract the people of the Arab world.

Missing helicopter 09 February 2012, 03:57

I think the Poll John is referring to was taken from the M8 camp only not the Arab world.

Default-user-icon John from Koura (Guest) 09 February 2012, 06:26

Here is the LINK...READ

http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/0805_arab_opinion_poll_telhami.aspx

Default-user-icon lebo (Guest) 09 February 2012, 13:53

That's not a new nor a recent poll it's not even the one you were quoting! You were quoting the figures from the 2008 poll(Google it), that's lazy and intellectually bankrupt john but that's what we always expect from you.

Default-user-icon John from Koura (Guest) 09 February 2012, 06:23

Here is the link...it was released today. The truth hurts...

http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/0805_arab_opinion_poll_telhami.aspx

Default-user-icon lebo (Guest) 10 February 2012, 00:17

according to your link the new recent poll "released today" was Conducted between June 29-July 20 2010 five month before anything happens in Tunisia and then spread to the rest of thew Arab world..
sorry to bother with this you john but I have to ask what year do you think we are in?

PS: still that's not the one you quoted, your figures are from the 2008 poll, you said something about truth..

“The only good news here is that that has declined from 2008,” Telhami said. Last year 88 percent said one of the biggest threats was the United States, compared to only 77 percent this year. For Israel, the numbers were 95 percent last year and 88 percent this year.

http://www.securitymanagement.com/article/arab-public-opinion-shifts-positive-direction-005947

Thumb jabalamel 09 February 2012, 06:29

the filthy zionist media terrorists can't connect 2 obvious links:

1. russians come to speak to him
2. he steps up campaing in homs.

Thumb anoniem 09 February 2012, 07:56

Habalkamel obviously doesn’t read the articles on Naharnet, he just enjoys replying to comments,in a filthy Zionist irrelevant way. Facebook is your place…