Dozens of Pro-Assad and Hezbollah Militants Killed Near Zabadani

Activists said that dozens of pro-Assad and Hezbollah militants were killed or injured in a failed attacks to recapture two major checkpoints they lost to rebels near Zabadani in rural Damascus. Rebels targeted regime positions inside the towns of Nibbul and Al Zahra in rural Aleppo with Katyusha rockets. In the meantime, regime forces continue to intensify bombardment of opposition-held areas, especially Al Waer district in Homs and Dara’a province. Regime forces targeted Al Waer neighborhood near Homs yesterday with incendiary shells, believed to contain napalm. Dozens of civilians were injured in the attack causing severe burns and cases of suffocation by gases emitted from the shells. Witnesses said they saw an orange material splattered on the walls of targets after the fires extinguished, confirming, according to military experts, the use of napalm in the attack. Salem al-Meslet, spokesman for the Syrian Coalition, said that the Assad regime seeks to cover up its defeats in front of rebels in Dara’a and Idlib through these vengeful attacks. “We call on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities and protect civilians in Syria through the imposition of a no-fly zone and to establish safe protected havens along Syria’s northern and southern borders as wells through providing practical support for the Free Syrian Army to defeat the Assad regime’s terrorism and the extremist of ISIS.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)