Activists said that Assad’s air force escalated air raids on rebel-held towns and villages in northwestern rural Hama, dropping over 15 barrel bombs on the towns of Lataminah, Kafr Zeita, Zakat and on the outskirts of Morek.
Regime forces also shelled the farmlands surrounding the town of Talbeesa north of Homs yesterday with artillery and mortar rounds, while the towns of Um Sharshouh and Ezzedine were targeted by five air raids.
Commenting on Assad’s statements made during the interview with the BBC, member of the Political Committee Khatib Badlah said that Assad is “a pathological liar and delusional. During the interview Assad denied his forces are using chlorine gas or barrel bombs against civilians, or that they are besieging and starving civilians. “Assad’s crimes are very well documented by the thousands of photos and videos as well as by reports published by the United Nations and human rights organizations,” Badlah added.
He pointed to the report submitted by the fact-finding mission on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which confirms that pro-Assad forces were behind dropping barrel bombs containing chlorine gas on three villages north of Hama.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, Assad’s air force has dropped over 5,150 barrel bombs between October 2012 and February 20, 2015, killing about 12,000 people, half of them women and children.
The Assad regime continues to barrel bomb rebel-held areas though the UN Security Council Resolution 2139, passed in 2014, condemning the Assad regime’s use of these indiscriminate weapons and banning its use in the residential areas. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
