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19 Killed in Syria Violence
[An Nahar] At least 19 people were killed in violence on Tuesday in Syria, where festivities between regime troops and rebels raged, monitors said.In central Homs province, seven non-combatants were killed overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Three of them died when the army shelled the outskirts of restive Qusayr, while four died in the city of Homs. One of those killed in Homs was filmmaker and photography student Bassel Shehade, who returned to Syria from the United States around three months ago, according to a Facebook page set up by activists. His killing at the hands of regime forces was an act of "treason to humankind," the page said. In northern Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... province, rebels and regime forces clashed on the edge of Atarib town on Monday night, the Britannia-based Observatory said. In Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... province, festivities broke out between rebels and regime forces after the army raided two areas, Al-Halala and the outskirts of Qatna. The brother of a rebel fighter was killed, the rights watchdog said, adding that dozens were badly maimed. Also in Damascus province, a civilian was killed in Ain Tarma village by regime forces' gunfire. In central Hama, two civilians were reportedly killed by sniper fire, while two regular army troops were killed in northeastern Raqqa. Regime forces pounded the town using "heavy machine gunfire and shells," the Observatory said, saying five rebel fighters were also killed. In northwestern Idlib province, a civilian was rubbed out in Maaret al-Numan village, where rebels and regime troops also clashed, injuring five regular soldiers. The violence raged on the second day of U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan  ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...'s visit to Syria, where more than 280 people have been killed since Friday, according to a toll compiled by Agence La Belle France Presse based on Observatory figures. Of the total, 108 people were killed in the central town of Houla on Friday to Saturday. The killings took place despite a ceasefire that has been continuously violated ever since it came into force as part of Annan's six-point peace plan on April 12. Posted by: Fred 2012-05-30 |
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