Iran sends troops to Syria to support Assad

NO INTERVENTION FROM THE WEST – BUT FOREIGN INTERVENTION FROM THE EAST

Syrian Revolution News Round- up / Day 533 : Iran is sending commanders from its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and hundreds of foot soldiers to Syria in order to support Assad in his battle against the rebels, according to current and former members of the corps. “Today we are involved in fighting every aspect of a war, a military one in Syria and a cultural one as well,” Gen. Salar Abnoush, commander of IRGC’s Saheb al-Amr unit, told volunteer trainees in a speech Monday.

The regime orchestrated another car bomb in a bid to instigate a sectarian strife in the country by blaming the Sunni rebels of being responsible for this explosion. This time it targeted a funeral in the neighbourhood of Jarmana in the capital Damascus killing more than 27 civilians from the Druze minority.

Also in the capital, regime forces killed 20 civilians in the neighbourhood of Jobar; three were summarily executed and identified as Christians. Dozens more were killed and many were wounded as regime forces resumed the shelling of the neighbourhoods of Qadam and Tadamon and the provincial towns of Harasta, Moadamiya, Zamalka, Kafarbatna, Erbin, Ein Tarma, Saqba, Hamouriya, Thiyabiya, Sayeda Zeinab, Hejeira, Jesrain and Sbeneh.

An early morning airstrike killed dozens of civilians and wounded many more in the Idlib suburb of Kafarnabel. Dozens were also killed and many wounded in the fierce and indiscriminate shelling that targeted the provincial towns of Ma’arrat Masrin, Shal al-Rouj and the villages of Bashiriya and Jossef in the Jabal Zawiya district.

More than 24 civilians were killed in the suburbs of Hama, 9 were summarily executed, and 14 more were killed due to air raids by MIG fighter jets on the villages of Sharea, Shahranaz and Karim in the Sahl al-Ghab district. Several others were killed and more injured in the shelling that targeted the towns of Latamna, Madiq Fortress and the villages of Shahshabo Mountain.

Regime forces continued its massive military offensive throughout the country, killing dozens of civilians, wounding hundreds others and forcing thousands of them to flee their homes. Regime forces heavily pounded the neighbourhood of Khaldiya and the old city of Homs as well as its provincial towns of Talbiseh, Rastan and Qsair. They also resumed shelling the neighbourhoods of Bustan Basha, Ithaa, Maysar and the eastern neighbourhoods in the city of Aleppo in addition to its northern suburbs. They shelled the city of Daraa and its provincial towns of Dael, Ma’arbeh, Bosra, Yadouda, Tasil, Tafa, Bosra, Najih and the villages of Lajat district in the province of Daraa as we all as the city of Deir Azzour and its provincial towns of Boukamal and Deir Azzour.

The head of the Syrian National Security Ali Mamlouk in coordination with Syrian minister of justice ordered the attorney general to file a lawsuite against a number of officials who have recently defected and a number of Syrian dissidents in exile, including ex-Prime Minister Riyad Hijab, ex-Vice President Abdul-Halim Khadam, Firas Tlas the son of ex-Syrian Minister of Defence Mustafa Tlas, Ambassador to Iraq Nawaf Fares, Chargé d’affaires in Cyprus Lamia Hariri, Doctor George Yazegi, Syria actress May Skaf, prominent opposition figure Michael Kilo and Sheikh Sariya Refaai. The Syrian government accused them of undermining the prestige of the state, weakening its national spirits, instigating sectarian strife, supporting and financing terrorism and supporting a foreign-backed conspiracy against the country. The sentences of these charges range from at least 5 years in jail up to the death sentence.