FOREIGN INTERVENTION : Lebanese Hezbollah shells the Syrian town of Qosayr

Syrian Revolution News Round- up – Day 573– Activists said that at least 75 armed militiamen from the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah were killed in an ambush by rebel fighters as they were entering the Homs suburbs of Qosayr near the border with Lebanon. Hezbollah responded by shelling the town with rocket launchers from within the Lebanese territory.

Rebel fighters continued to repel the regime’s ground assault coupled with fierce shelling on the neighbourhoods of Khaldiya, Qosour and Old City. Regime forces also shelled the provincial towns of Talbiseh, Qosayr, Rastan, Ghanto, Teir Ma’alaa and Krak Des Chevalier leaving scores of people dead and many more wounded.

Regime forces killed more than 31 civilians “execution style” in the Damascus suburb of Hameh in addition to 5 more in the town of Qoudsaya. They also resumed their heavy bombardment in the eastern Ghouta district and the neighbourhoods of Qadam and Asaly bringing the total death toll in Damascus and its suburbs to 51.

The regime fighter jets bombarded residential areas in the Aleppo suburb of Menbej leaving at least 15 civilians dead and dozens more wounded. Meanwhile, at least 4 civilians were killed and scores more wounded when a shell targeted an anti-government protest in the neighbourhood of Ansari in Aleppo city.

Fierce clashes between rebel fighters and the joint Syrian-Hezbollah forces resumed on several fronts in Aleppo city and its suburbs as regime forces resumed their heavy bombardment in the neighbourhoods of Sakhour, Shaar, Bustan Basha, Sukari and Masaken Hanano as well as the provincial towns of Anjara, Ezaz, al-Bab, Bazagha and Deir Hafer, resulting in a number of deaths and injuries. Regime forces peruse a scorched-earth campaign in the Daraa suburb of Karak Sharqi as they’re trying to enter the town for the second day in a row using a number of kidnapped civilians as human shields in order to reduce attacks by rebel fighters. Regime forces shelled the town using all sort of heavy weaponry including TNT barrel bombs, causing mass destruction and forcing all its residents out of it. Three explosions rocked the capital targeting a number of security buildings. One targeted the Criminal Security Branch in the Bab Msala area and another targeted the police headquarters in Khalid Bin Waleed Street.

Another Syrian mortar shell landed in the Turkish border town of Akcakale, prompting the retaliatory artillery fire by the Turkish army in a fifth straight day, no casualties were reported.Scores of civilians died and many more were injured while dozens of houses were destroyed, thus prompting a mass exodus as regime forces resumed their attacks on several areas in the provinces of Deir Azzour, Hama, Idlib, Raqa, and Qunaitera.The head of the Veterinary Association branch in the province of Idlib Dr Yahia Mardaa, said that the poultry industry is in a serious decline due to the spiralling global prices of corn and soy. Mardaa also said that at least 90% of the poultry farms closed down in the province of Idlib due in part to the escalating violence in the country.