FIN DE PARTIE ! – More than 130 countries recognize the Syrian opposition coalition

Syrian Revolution News Round- up / Day 639

More than 100 Arab and Western countries, including the US, gave full political recognition to the Syrian National Coalition for Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the “sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people”. The final statement of the “Friends of Syrian People” fourth conference in Morocco, said that the illegitimate President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad must step down to allow a political transition in his country.

They also warned the Assad army against using its chemical weapons. During his speech, the president of the opposition coalition called upon the Syrian Alawite minority to launch a campaign of civil disobedience against the Assad regime and to join the ranks of the Syrian rebels. He also criticized Washington’s designation of the Islamist Jabhat al-Nusra brigade as a terrorist organization and demanded it to look again into its decision.

Several car bomb explosions rocked different places in the Syrian capital today. One of them targeted the premises of the Ministry of Interior, injuring its minister Mohammad al-Shaar and killing the Chief Operations Officer of Damascus district, Abdul-Moti Saleh.

Activists released a video on Youtube that purportedly shows an Iranian-made rocket “Saker-5” fired by regime forces stationed at Hamdiya barrack near the Idlib suburb of Ma’arrat al-Numan.Regime forces shelled as many as 242 different areas, 85 of which were shelled by mortar shells while 47 others were pounded by heavy artillery. Some 88 areas came under rocket shelling as fighter jets bombarded more than 16 others, mainly in the suburbs of Damascus. Regime forces killed at least 111 people, including 13 children, 12 women and 32 rebel fighters. They killed 41 people in Aleppo, 17 of whom died in a phosphorus bomb attack on the provincial town of Safeira, while four others died in cluster bomb attack on the town of Marea. They also killed 34 people in Damascus and its suburbs, 16 of whom died in an airstrike that targeted a mosque in the town of Daraya. Meanwhile, at least 11 rebel fighters were killed in Deir Azzour, the majority died while attacking the Deir Azzour airbase. The rebels said they shot down five fighter jets in the suburbs of Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib as well in the city of Homs. They also destroyed two more when they broke into the Deir Azzour airbase. Fighting is still on-going in several areas in the capital and its suburbs. The rebels continued to successfully thwart the regime’s attempt to infiltrate the towns of Daraya and Moadamiyat al-sham and ambushed a military convoy of six military trucks on the road to Damascus airport, destroying the six of them.

ead of Mahrukat, the state-owned oil distribution company, said in an interview to Al-Watan, a local daily, that the level of supplies of heating oil are currently down 40% from previous years’ levels.