Syrian Revolution News Round- up / Day 564 Mass protests demand unity of rebel groups

Mass demonstrations broke out in more than 370 different locations across the country demanding rebel fighters to unite their ranks, have a centralised command and unified strategy to knock down the Assad regime, demonstrators also demanded the overthrow of the Assad regime.

A number of defected officers announced the formation of the Joint Leadership of the Military Revolutionary Councils which includes more than 80% of the rebel fighting groups througout the country.Activists said that more than 70 soldiers defected to the rebels’ side in the Rahjan military checkpoint in the province of Hama.Regime forces committed a massacre in the Damascus suburb of Qodsaya claiming the lives of more than 17 civilians including women and children. Meanwhile, regime forces stormed the neighbourhoods of Barzeh, Qabun, Jobar and Tadmon killing at least 12 civilians in Barzeh and nine more in Qabun in addition to arresting dozens of other civilians. Activists also said that at least 12 prisoners were murdered in the central prison of Hama, while a number of civilians were also murdered in the Daraa suburbs of Kahil, Tafas, Bosra and Wadi Raqad.Regime forces bombarded the groves of Barzeh in Damascus while continuing to detonate and bulldoze residential buildings in the neighbourhood of Tadamon. Meanwhile, the heavy artillery and fighter jets bombarded the Damascus suburbs of Saqba, Harasta, Kafarbatna, Zabadani, Qudsaya, Artouz, Deir Asafir, Bahariya and Shaaba causing several deaths and injuries. In Deir Azzour, at least 20 civilians were killed “execution style” in the neighbourhood of Qosour as regime fighter jets pounded the neighbourhoods of Ommal, Arfi and Sheikh Yasin

The rebel Free Syrian Army led by the al-Tawhid brigade continued pushing into the city of Aleppo, seizing control of more neighbourhoods and clashing with pro-regime Kurdish fighters (PKK) in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud. Meanwhile, at least 22 civilians were summarily executed by regime forces in the neighbourhood of Rashdin, while dozens more were killed and more were wounded as the regime heavy artillery and fighter jets shelled the neighbourhoods of Jaloum, Kalaseh, Shaar, Nerab and Sakhour, as well as the provincial towns of al-Bab, Ezaz, Kafaramma and Kaljerin.

In the meantime, regime forces resumed their fierce and indiscriminate shelling of densely populated areas throughout the country, leaving scores of civilians dead and wounded while destroying dozens of houses. They shelled the neighbourhoods of Jobar, Sultaniya, Khaldiay and Jouret Sheyah in the city of Homs as well as its provincial towns of Qosayr, Rastan, Ghanto and Krak Des Chevalier. They also shelled the Hama suburbs of Karnaz and Sahl al-Ghab as well as the Idlib suburbs of Sarmin and Jesser Shoghour. They resumed pounding the Daraa subrusb of Karak Sharqi, Yadouda, Mzereib and Tayba as well as the village of Bait Awan, Qasatel and Saraya in the suburbs of Latakia.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that the Syrian regime has moved some chemical weapons to safeguard the material as it wages war against rebel forces but the main storage sites for its arsenal remain secure. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the humanitarian situation in Syria has deteriorated rapidly during the month of September due to the escalating violence in the country and that the damage and destruction of the country’s infrastructure made it harder for people to find the things they need in order to survive, particularly medical care and medical supplies.