Syrian Revolution News Round- up / day 635 : Regime dispenses to its soldiers protective gear against chemical attacks

Fighting raged throughout the suburbs and outskirts of Damascus as the regime continued to bring in reinforcements from the southern provinces of Daraa and Qunaitera and closed all exits from the capital.

The rebels continued their attacks on the Mazeh airbase and Damascus Airport in the suburbs while storming the department of military vehicles in the town of Harasta using captured military tanks, armored vehicle and rocket launchers. Al-Baraa battalion said its fighting units ambushed a military truck in the road to Damascus airport, the truck was loaded with protective chemical gear and provided a video to prove its claim.

The rebels also continued their efforts to take over the Menneg airbase in Aleppo as well as the Deir Azzour airbase in the east of the country where they stormed a nearby military checkpoint and pushed regime forces behind the airbase’s walls.

Regime forces continued their military offensive on the opposition-held areas throughout the country. They shelled as many as 232 different areas, 54 of which were shelled by mortar shells while 134 others were pounded by heavy artillery. Some 44 areas came under rocket shelling as fighter jets bombarded more than ten others, mainly in the suburbs of Damascus. Helicopter gunships dropped barrel bombs on seven areas thus causing extensive damage to residential buildings and leaving scores of people dead and injured.

Regime forces killed as many as 107 people, including 12 children, 12 women and 26 rebel fighters.

In Damascus and its suburbs, regime forces killed 47 people, 14 of whom died during heavy fighting that broke out in the provincial towns of Harasta, Douma, Saqba, Hamouriya and Haran Awamid while eight civilians were summarily executed in the district of Kafarsoueh. Some seven more died due to the fierce shelling in the town of Moadamiyat al-Sham, including two girls whose death was allegedly caused by a toxic gas. The heavy rocket shelling also left at least seven people dead and dozens more wounded in the town of Mesraba of East Ghouta district. At least 20 people, including five children, died in Idlib as regime warplanes launched airstrikes on the towns of Frika, Has, Kafarlata and the village of Ma’arbeleit. Regime forces also killed 14 people in Aleppo, including four children that died when regime artillery shells hit a local market and nearby bakery in the densely populated neighbourhood of Hollok. Some 14 people died in Deir Azzour, ten of whom were burned to death in the neighbourhood of Jubiala, while eight more people died due to the violent shelling in the Daraa suburbs of Tseil and Taffas. The number of Syrian refugees scattered across Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and some northern African countries reached 498,000 thus far.