Syrian Revolution News Round- up / Day 628 : Airport fighting intensifies, rebels shoot down six warplanes

The rebels continued to make tangible progress during the third day of the battle for the country’s main airport. They destroyed a number of military tanks as they clashed with regime forces in the nearby towns of Abada and Harran Awamid. They also attacked the military security branch located in the town of Aqraba near the “third bridge” and clashed with regime forces near the town of Bait Sahem located near the “second bridge” of the 20km-long road to the airport.

The rebels shot down a fighter jet as it was attacking the town of Aqraba and seized control of the 35th regiment located at the town of Ghasouleh in the East Ghouta district of Damascus province. They also shot down three fighter jets in the suburbs of Damascus, Hama and Idlib and bombed a fighter jet and a helicopter gunship during their attack on the Deir Azzour airbase.

The rebel Al-Habib al-Mustafa brigade claimed responsibility for a car bomb explosion that left dozens of people dead and wounded in the mainly Alawite neighborhood of Ush al-Warwar in central Damascus.

A new military committee has emerged after the three-day meeting of the The Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces in Cairo. The committee will be tasked with uniting all military units in Syria under its umbrella and work out a relief appeal which will be presented during the next “Friends of Syria” conference in morocco. The coalition has also edged closer toward choosing a prime minister to lead a transitional government which would have up to 10 ministers who must be above 35 years old, revolutionaries, technocrats and from outside the coalition.

The Internet connections began working again after a two-day blackout as regime forces continued their major onslaught on the opposition areas in Damascus and its suburbs. The neighbourhoods of Jobar and Hajar Aswad came under heavy aerial and rocket bombardments leaving dozens of houses destroyed and at least 11 people dead. Some 60 people were also killed and more than 200 others were wounded in similar attacks on the suburbs of Bait Sahem, Douma, Daraya, Moadamia and Thiyabiya.  

Regime forces killed 36 people in Aleppo, eight of whom died due to the indiscriminate shelling in the town of Safeira while 16 rebel fighters were killed during clashes in the neighbourhoods of Ameriya and Leramon as well as in the Aleppo suburb of Mosalmiya. They killed 21 people in Idlib, seven of whom died when a regime helicopter gunship fired indiscriminately on the vehicles that were moving on Aleppo-Idlib road near the provincial town of Taftanaz. Meanwhile, 12 people were killed in Daraa where most of them died due to the indiscriminate shelling in the towns of Tafas and Bosra. They also killed 15 people in Deir Azzour, five of whom died due to the violent shelling in the town of Ayash while seven others were summarily executed in the neighbourhood of Ba’ajin. Some six people were also killed in Homs, two of whom died under torture.  

At least eight people were killed and dozens more were injured in a car bomb explosion in the centre of Raqa city which saw a major strike and civil disobedience in condemnation of the regime’s brutal crackdown against its opposition. Regime forces bombarded several areas in Homs, Aleppo, Deir Azzour, Daraa, Hama and Idlib, causing extensive damage to residential buildings and leaving dozens of people wounded.