Blasts rock television station in Damascus
7 Aug 2012 7:42 AM IST
A bomb blast rocked Syrian state television headquarters in the heart of Damascus wounding several people today just two days after the army said it had seized the last rebel-held area of the capital.
In commercial capital Aleppo, the army bombarded a string of rebel neighbourhoods after government security officials said that troops had completed their build-up and that a 20,000-strong force was poised for a ground assault.
Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi said there were no deaths in the morning bombing of the state television buildings in the heavily protected Omayyad district of Damascus.
‘It is clear that the blast was caused by an explosive device,’ Zoabi said. ‘Several of our colleagues were injured, but there were no serious injuries, and no dead.’
The broadcaster said that the blast hit the third floor of its headquarters. It remained on the air despite the bombing.
It was not the first attack on the pro-government media in Syria. On 27 June, gunmen armed with explosives attacked the offices outside Damascus of the Al-Ikhbariya satellite channel, killing three journalists and four security guards.
‘The terrorist groups stormed the offices of Al-Ikhbariya, planted explosives in the studios and blew them up along with the equipment,’ Zoabi said after that attack.
On 18 July, four top security officials – including President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law – were killed in a bombing that rocked the heart of the regime. The attack was claimed by the rebel Free Syrian Army.
A subsequent investigation found that a technician in the office of Hisham Ikhtiar, head of the National Security agency, had planted explosives in the room where the crisis cell meeting was held. The latest blast comes just two days after the army said it had seized Tadamun, the last rebel-held district of Damascus, after heavy fighting, and authorities took journalists on an escorted tour.
‘We have cleansed all the districts of Damascus, from Al-Midan to Mazzeh, from Al-Hajar Al-Aswad to Qadam... to Tadamun,’ an officer told reporters at the time.
In Aleppo , a rebel commander was killed on Monday in the Salaheddin district in the southwest, and troops shelled the Palace of Justice in the city centre, as well as the Marjeh and Shaar districts, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Afp
40 KILLED IN ‘MASSACRE’ IN CENTRAL SYRIA
Syria’s exiled opposition, on Monday, accused the government of killing 40 people in a massacre in a central town in a bid to terrorise people into flight to change the confessional balance of the region.
The Syrian National Council said that a further 120 people were wounded in the attack by troops and militia on Harbnafsa, in Hama province, a town of some 8,000 inhabitants.
‘Regime forces bombarded the town... with tanks and heavy weapons for five hours straight,’ the SNC said. ‘They then stormed the town.’
The group said the government’s ‘criminality and desire to commit murder and instil terror has reached such a point that the military and security services, as well as the shabiha (loyalist militia) from nearby... villages, chased fleeing townspeople with knives and live ammunition.’
Condemning what it described as a ‘barbaric massacre’, the SNC said the killings were a result of ‘a clear policy of displacement.’
Rural areas of Hama province have suffered a series of massacres in recent months, frequently involving pro-government militia, according to opposition activists and human rights monitors.
The province is confessionally mixed, with some areas Sunni Muslim and others made up of members of the minority Alawite community of President Bashar al-Assad.
The opposition accuse the government of deliberately stoking sectarian tensions and of unleashing mainly Alawite militia in a bid to drive out Sunnis. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the killing of a total of 11 civilians in Harbnafsa, including five children, in violence Sunday and Monday.
In commercial capital Aleppo, the army bombarded a string of rebel neighbourhoods after government security officials said that troops had completed their build-up and that a 20,000-strong force was poised for a ground assault.
Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi said there were no deaths in the morning bombing of the state television buildings in the heavily protected Omayyad district of Damascus.
‘It is clear that the blast was caused by an explosive device,’ Zoabi said. ‘Several of our colleagues were injured, but there were no serious injuries, and no dead.’
The broadcaster said that the blast hit the third floor of its headquarters. It remained on the air despite the bombing.
It was not the first attack on the pro-government media in Syria. On 27 June, gunmen armed with explosives attacked the offices outside Damascus of the Al-Ikhbariya satellite channel, killing three journalists and four security guards.
‘The terrorist groups stormed the offices of Al-Ikhbariya, planted explosives in the studios and blew them up along with the equipment,’ Zoabi said after that attack.
On 18 July, four top security officials – including President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law – were killed in a bombing that rocked the heart of the regime. The attack was claimed by the rebel Free Syrian Army.
A subsequent investigation found that a technician in the office of Hisham Ikhtiar, head of the National Security agency, had planted explosives in the room where the crisis cell meeting was held. The latest blast comes just two days after the army said it had seized Tadamun, the last rebel-held district of Damascus, after heavy fighting, and authorities took journalists on an escorted tour.
‘We have cleansed all the districts of Damascus, from Al-Midan to Mazzeh, from Al-Hajar Al-Aswad to Qadam... to Tadamun,’ an officer told reporters at the time.
In Aleppo , a rebel commander was killed on Monday in the Salaheddin district in the southwest, and troops shelled the Palace of Justice in the city centre, as well as the Marjeh and Shaar districts, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Afp
40 KILLED IN ‘MASSACRE’ IN CENTRAL SYRIA
Syria’s exiled opposition, on Monday, accused the government of killing 40 people in a massacre in a central town in a bid to terrorise people into flight to change the confessional balance of the region.
The Syrian National Council said that a further 120 people were wounded in the attack by troops and militia on Harbnafsa, in Hama province, a town of some 8,000 inhabitants.
‘Regime forces bombarded the town... with tanks and heavy weapons for five hours straight,’ the SNC said. ‘They then stormed the town.’
The group said the government’s ‘criminality and desire to commit murder and instil terror has reached such a point that the military and security services, as well as the shabiha (loyalist militia) from nearby... villages, chased fleeing townspeople with knives and live ammunition.’
Condemning what it described as a ‘barbaric massacre’, the SNC said the killings were a result of ‘a clear policy of displacement.’
Rural areas of Hama province have suffered a series of massacres in recent months, frequently involving pro-government militia, according to opposition activists and human rights monitors.
The province is confessionally mixed, with some areas Sunni Muslim and others made up of members of the minority Alawite community of President Bashar al-Assad.
The opposition accuse the government of deliberately stoking sectarian tensions and of unleashing mainly Alawite militia in a bid to drive out Sunnis. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the killing of a total of 11 civilians in Harbnafsa, including five children, in violence Sunday and Monday.
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