Revolution News Round- up / Day 584 : Rebels accept truce during Eid, the regime kills 224 in response.
The joint command for military and revolutionary councils in Syria announced it was ready for a conditional ceasefire after international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi had called for a truce in Syria during the four-day Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday starting on October 26. Meanwhile, the Syrian government expressed scepticism and continued to pound residential areas killing at least 224 people including 32 children and 14 women, mostly fell in Damascus and its suburbs, Idlib and Aleppo.
Syrian fighter jets bombarded the rebels’ held town of Ma’arrat Noman in the province of Idlib. The strike destroyed two residential buildings and a mosque where many women and children were taking refuge and resulting in the death of more than 33 people, some of them were impossible to identify after been torn to pieces. Another strike later on in the evening on the same town left seven more people dead, thus bringing the death toll to more than 44 people including 12 children and five women. Many more people were also killed as fighter jets continued to bombard the Idlib suburbs of Saqlin, Ma’arrat Horma and Kafrouma, while the heavy artillery pounded the towns of Isqat, Qaminas and Saraqeb.
The suburbs of Damascus were subjected to one of the sternest military offensive today, with more than 72 people dead including five women and one child. Fighter jets bombarded several towns and villages, while regime troops backed by military tanks carried out looting, arson and summary executions in the village of Shifouniya killing at least 11 people. They slaughtered more than 11 people in the town of Artouz using knives and massacred others in the towns of Moadamiya, Rihan and Bait Sahem. Meanwhile, at least 28 people were killed and dozens more were injured as the regime’s fighter jets bombarded the towns of Saqba and Hamouriya. At least nine unidentified bodies were also discovered in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in the south of Damascus. At least 15 rebel fighters were killed as fighting continued in Aleppo and its surrounding provincial towns. Activists said that six unidentified bodies believed to have been executed by regime forces were discovered in an abandoned building in the neighborhood of Jamiyat Zahraa. Regime forces also resumed their massive military operations amid suffocating siege and indiscriminate attacks on residential areas in Homs, Daraa, Hama, Latakia, Raqa and Qunaitera leaving scores of people dead and many more wounded while destroying dozens of houses, thus prompting a mass exodus.
Abdullah Bin Mobarak battalion claimed responsibility for the suicide bomb carried out using a booby-trapped motorcycle targeting a security compound near the ministry of interior in the neighbourhood of Kafarsouseh in Damascus. No casualties were reported. Heavy battles continued between rebel fighters and regime forces throughout the country, killing at least 61 army soldiers and more than 36 rebel fighters.
A Colonel along with seven soldiers defected to the rebels’ side in Deir Azzour city. Similarly, 25 soldiers joined the rebels as they continued to besiege the Wady Adayf military base in Ma’arrat Noman and the air defence base in Dowayla Mountain in suburbs of Idlib. Economically, house rental fees have surged by 50% in the relatively calm areas in Damascus and its suburbs; some flats are being rented for as high as $1460 per month and this is due to the huge influx of displaced people pouring in from different hot areas in Damascus and other provinces.