Air strike on bakery kills dozens in Syria
24 Dec 2012 6:17 AM IST
An air strike near a bakery in the rebel-held town of Halfaya in the central Syrian province of Hama on Sunday killed dozens of people, a monitoring group said.
‘Dozens of people were killed in an air strike on Halfaya,’ said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while activists in Hama said the raid had targeted a bakery in the town.
‘In Halfaya, regime forces bombarded a bakery and committed a massacre that killed dozens of people, including women and children, and wounded many others,’ said the Local Coordination Committees, a grassroots network of activists. ‘A MiG (jet) has attacked! Look at (President Bashar al-) Assad's weapons. Look, world, look at the Halfaya massacre,’ says an unidentified cameraman shooting an amateur video distributed by the Observatory. The footage showed a bombed one-storey block, and a crater in the road beside it. Bloodied bodies lay on the road, while others could be seen in the rubble.
Men carried victims out on their backs, among them at least one woman, the video showed. On Monday, rebels launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama, which is home to strong anti-regime sentiment. During the summer, rights groups accused government forces of committing war crimes by dropping bombs on or near several bakeries in Aleppo.
UN-ARAB LEAGUE ENVOY BRAHIMI ENTERS DAMASCUS
International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi entered Syria on Sunday for a new attempt to resolve the brutal conflict that has ravaged the country for nearly two years. Regime warplanes, meanwhile, launched air strikes across Syria, including on rebel-held towns in the northern province of Aleppo and on countryside around the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.
Officials said the UN-Arab League envoy, seen at the Sheraton Hotel in central Damascus, travelled overland from neighbouring Lebanon for a previously unannounced visit, an AFP correspondent said.
‘The international envoy crossed the Lebanese-Syrian border at about 2:00 pm (1200 GMT),’ one official said, after reports that Brahimi had flown to Beirut International Airport. Brahimi last visited Syria on October 19, but since then there has been fighting between government forces and rebels on the road to Damascus airport. During his October visit, which lasted five days, he met President Bashar al-Assad and other officials to clinch a temporary ceasefire for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha. Despite pledges, the truce did not hold. Airport officials in Beirut told AFP on condition of anonymity that the United Nations was tasked with ensuring Brahimi’s security on his journey into the embattled country.
‘Dozens of people were killed in an air strike on Halfaya,’ said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while activists in Hama said the raid had targeted a bakery in the town.
‘In Halfaya, regime forces bombarded a bakery and committed a massacre that killed dozens of people, including women and children, and wounded many others,’ said the Local Coordination Committees, a grassroots network of activists. ‘A MiG (jet) has attacked! Look at (President Bashar al-) Assad's weapons. Look, world, look at the Halfaya massacre,’ says an unidentified cameraman shooting an amateur video distributed by the Observatory. The footage showed a bombed one-storey block, and a crater in the road beside it. Bloodied bodies lay on the road, while others could be seen in the rubble.
Men carried victims out on their backs, among them at least one woman, the video showed. On Monday, rebels launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama, which is home to strong anti-regime sentiment. During the summer, rights groups accused government forces of committing war crimes by dropping bombs on or near several bakeries in Aleppo.
UN-ARAB LEAGUE ENVOY BRAHIMI ENTERS DAMASCUS
International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi entered Syria on Sunday for a new attempt to resolve the brutal conflict that has ravaged the country for nearly two years. Regime warplanes, meanwhile, launched air strikes across Syria, including on rebel-held towns in the northern province of Aleppo and on countryside around the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.
Officials said the UN-Arab League envoy, seen at the Sheraton Hotel in central Damascus, travelled overland from neighbouring Lebanon for a previously unannounced visit, an AFP correspondent said.
‘The international envoy crossed the Lebanese-Syrian border at about 2:00 pm (1200 GMT),’ one official said, after reports that Brahimi had flown to Beirut International Airport. Brahimi last visited Syria on October 19, but since then there has been fighting between government forces and rebels on the road to Damascus airport. During his October visit, which lasted five days, he met President Bashar al-Assad and other officials to clinch a temporary ceasefire for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha. Despite pledges, the truce did not hold. Airport officials in Beirut told AFP on condition of anonymity that the United Nations was tasked with ensuring Brahimi’s security on his journey into the embattled country.
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