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Assad Regime Execute A British Doctor
The government of the Assad regime executed British doctor Abbas Khan, who was detained for 13 months by of Assad’s security forces was brutally tortured while in detention. The orthopedic surgeon from London was captured in November 2012 in the ancient city of Aleppo after travelling from Turkey to help victims of hospital bombings. His body had been transferred from Syria to neighboring Lebanon on Saturday where his mother Fatima and brother Afroze received it. The Assad regime claims Khan had committed suicide in his cell, while the British authorities accused Damascus of killing him, despite he was on the verge of being released when his family were told of his death. The Assad regime said that post-mortem examination showed that Khan committed suicide, but his family questioned these claims, as he was about to be released. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
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Regime Forces Continue Aerial Campaign on Aleppo
Assad’s air force continued aerial shelling on Aleppo for the eighth daym killing more than 100 people mostly women and children, and wounding dozens. Shelling was concentrated on neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, such as Hanano, Bidin, and Ahmadiya. Two paramedics of Aleppo’s Medical Council were killed during the shelling. Appeals were made to the people of Aleppo to donate blood in the makeshift hospitals. In addition, Assad’s warplanes dropped explosive barrels on towns and villages in rural Aleppo. Dozens of children and teachers were killed by aerial shelling on a school in the towns of Mareh. The Free Council of Aleppo announced the suspension of official working in the schools for a week after a large number of schools were badly damaged by systematic shelling by regime forces. The Council also called on international organizations and UNICEF to shoulder their responsibilities towards the deterioration of the humanitarian situation and the education in the province of Aleppo. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Local Coordination Committees)
Clashes in Southern Damascus and Adra
The Free Syrian Army clashed with regime forces in the neighborhood of Yarmouk camp and Jouret Alchreibati in southern Damascus. In A mortar shell fell near the Rous Tower in the neighborhood Kassa’a, injuring a number of people. Regime forces launched a campaign of arrests of a number of civilians in the neighborhood of Salhiya of Damascus. A number of pro-Assad soldiers were killed during clashes with the FSA in Adra northeast of Damascus. In the meantime, Assad’s warplanes launched air raids on Douma near Damascus, injuring a number of civilians and causing material damage. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Local Coordination Committees)
Barrel Bombs Kill Five People In Rural Dara’a
Five civilians were killed and dozens wounded by aerial shelling using barrel bombs on the town of Jassem in rural Dara’a. Meanwhile, violent clashes erupted between the Free Syrian Army and the regime forces near Brigade No. 52 in Al Hiraq, with reports of regime losses. Clashes also were reported between the two sides in the town of Sheikh Misqin, alongside shelling by regime forces on the town. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Local Coordination Committees)
Car Bomb Kill 12 Pro-Assad Forces In Homs
Twelve pro-Assad soldiers were killed and others wounded when a car bomb exploded in the village of Umm Al Amad in rural Homs. Meanwhile, civilian casualties were reported in the town of Al Ghantou as result of regime shelling on the town. Regime forces launched a campaign of arrests of civilians in the towns of Krak des Chevaliers, Albesas, Achammash, Wadi Nasarah, Paroha and Tal Kalakh. More than 50 people, mostly women, were arrested and taken away to unknown destinations. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Local Coordination Committees)
Bab al Hawa Border Crossing Closes Down After Air Raids
Assad’s warplanes launched air raids on Bab al Hawa Border crossing in northern Idlib, injuring a number of civilians. Traffic completely stopped on the Turkish side of the borders following the air raids. The Free Syrian Army ambushed a vehicle belonging to regime forces, near Bseda in rural Idlib and killed and injured a number of regime forces. A number of detainees from the city of Lattakia died under torture in Sidnaya prison, according to activists. Meanwhile, students in Raqqa held demonstrations following the shutting down of the Institute of Music by Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS). (Source: Syrian Coalition + Local Coordination Committees)
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United States: It Is Hard To Imagine Tehran Participate In Geneva
A senior U.S. official said that it is hard to imagine Tehran participates in Geneva 2, adding that Iran is the only country that has military elements who are fighting in Syria alongside the Assad regime. The senior official said that this is a “unique situation.” He also said: “I hope that Iran considers withdrawing its fighters and let the revolutionaries and the Syrian regime agree on forming a transitional government that has full executive powers.” However, the Iranians maintain that the Iranian elements who give support to the Assad regime are consultants and that they are not playing active role in the fighting. For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that he told the joint UN-Arab envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi that Tehran stresses the importance of the political process to resolve the Syrian crisis. Zarif stressed that his country is ready to participate in Geneva II without any preconditions. Official Iranian sources said that “if Iran does not go to Geneva II, then this does not mean the end of the world. We will continue to work with Brahimi to push towards a solution in Syria.” Ibrahimi said he would continue coordination with the Iranians in case they were not officially invited to participate in the peace conference. Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said that resolving the issue of Iran’s participation needs to be discussed at the ministerial level. (Source: Syrian Coalition –Al Jazeera)
Russia: All Syrians must unite to fight terrorism
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Government of the Assad regime and the revolutionaries must unite in the fight against “terrorists and extremists,” seeing this the only way to deal with “the chaos that Syria plunged to.” Haitham al-Maleh, head of the Legal Committee of the Syrian Coalition, said that everyone wants to fight terrorism, which is one of the priorities of the Syrian Coalition. He also said that “the problem of the international community that it is unable to accurately define the terrorist side. It must have designated the Assad regime as terrorist before placing Al Nusra Front on the terrorist list, since the Assad regime is the arch terrorist in the whole region.” Maleh’s remarks came in response to statements by Russian Foreign Ministry after a consultative meeting held between Russia and the United States. “The political process in Geneva 2 should help to unite the efforts of all Syrians in the fight against terrorism,” Russian Foreign Ministry said. Maleh also stated that “the international policy in defining the terrorists in Syria is based on distortion of facts, where the real terrorist is Bashar al-Assad and the terrorist militias of Hezbollah and Abu al Fadl al Abbas.” Furthermore, Maleh stressed that “Iran is waging a random war on the region and recruiting their sect in order to achieve its political interests without worrying about the lives of the Syrians. The scarecrow of terrorism, which the regime tries to exploit in order to influence the international community and to force the Syrian people to give up the demands that they rose up for, is no longer doing any good after its atrocious acts have been exposed.” Maleh went on: “If the International community is interested in the success of its mission to solve the Syrian crisis, it has to be fair and identifies the real terrorist and the side responsible for the massacres committed in Syria, namely by Assad’s forces and the foreign militias which kill the Syrians to support their interests in the region.” The head of the Legal Committee also said: “The international community is exaggerating the phenomenon of extremism in the ranks of the revolutionaries, though we cannot deny the existence of few of them. However, we have to recall Assad’s statements to the delegation of the Jordanian Bar that he has close ties with some of the fighters within the ranks of the revolutionaries. The Assad regime has been trying through those fighters to distort the popular revolution in Syria.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)
Geagea: Assad Regime Exploits the Christian Presence as a Card to Cling To Power
Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces, regretted “the inclusion of the Christian existence in the Levant, which is an important and sensitive topic, in the narrow political interests.” He also said that “some people has raised this subject in order to prove that the Assad regime is protecting the minorities in the Levant, thereby prolonging its hold on power.” Furthermore, Geagea criticized some politicians who are “dramatizing the death of someone in Syria, for example, in Maloula. We are all concerned about this subject, but there are some people who seek to portray the conflict as sectarian one when it comes to Maloula. This approach is falsification of history, as most of the Syrian cities are destroyed and hundreds of thousands were killed. However, all this is deliberately being ignored by those who raises the subject of Christians in Syria. What is happening in Maloula is similar to what happened in Homs, Aleppo, Daraa.” Geagea went on: “Some people are trying to portray what is happening in Syria as against Christians, while this is not true, and I regret that some senior clerics used the Christian presence as a card in order to prolong the life of the Assad regime.” He also pointed out that “the pillars of the Syrian revolution have been demanding the establishment of a civil and pluralistic state in Syria. Therefore, we as Christians should support the Syrian revolution against the Assad regime, as we are not foreign communities in the Levant or the remnants of the Crusades; we are part of the social fabric of the Levant. Moreover, we are not in need of protection. The Assad regime is responsible for the worst kinds of atrocities against the Christians in the region. We must remember the bombing of Ashrafieh, Zahle, Jarrod and Kesserwan.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Al Arabiyah)
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