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Regime Air Strikes Kill 44 across Syria
[AnNahar] Syrian government air strikes on opposition-held towns across the country killed at least 44 people on Monday and maimed more than 100, a monitoring group said.In Jassem in the southern province of Daraa, 16 non-combatants were killed in four air strikes, while 25 were maimed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The strikes came in response to a major rebel offensive that has been under way in southern Syria for months. "As usual, the regime is striking populated areas in order to make civilian supporters of opposition fighters turn against them," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. Rebels fighting to oust  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... have suffered a spate of defeats at the hands of his forces, but they still have the upper hand in Daraa. "Opposition fighters are making steady progress in Daraa province. The vast majority of the west of the province has completely fallen out of government control, and that is where Jassem is located," Abdel Rahman said. Rebels in the area benefit from "the fact that supply lines from Jordan are still open," he added. The involvement of experienced fighters from Syria's al-Qaeda affiliate, the al-Nusra ...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant... Front, has also helped the rebels to gain territory in Daraa. Elsewhere, air strikes on Douma, the besieged rebel-held town east of Damascus, killed at least 10 civilians and maimed dozens more, the Observatory said. An Agence La Belle France-Presse photographer in Douma said the strikes hit residential areas and that most of the maimed were children. - Defector killed - At Khan Sheikhun in the northwestern province of Idlib, 15 people were killed, including a former army officer who had defected from loyalist ranks to join opposition forces, the Observatory said.
The regime first deployed warplanes in the Syrian conflict in July 2012. Now, nearly four years into the war, there are air strikes every day, despite repeated warnings from the international community that such tactics fail to discriminate between civilian and military targets. On a separate front, Syrian Kurds fighting the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group made fresh advances near Kobane, seizing a new string of villages a week after the flashpoint town was recaptured from the IS jihadists. "The Kurds now control an area stretching across 14 kilometers (nine miles) southwards from Kobane, 10 kilometers to the east, and 10 to 12 kilometers to the west," said Abdel Rahman. The Observatory director also said Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) backed by Syrian rebels had killed 10 IS members in the past 24 hours. The U.S.-led coalition targeting the jihadists in both Syria and Iraq reported Monday it had launched 10 air strikes against IS in Syria -- nine near Kobane and one at Deir Ezzor in the east.
Posted by: trailing wife 2015-02-03 |
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