The rebels make surprising gains in Hama / Killings in Hasaka

Syrian Revolution News Round- up / Day 645

The rebels continued their “Hama liberation battle” for the second day in a raw, announcing the mobilization of all rebel forces in order to break the year-long siege imposed on the city and its suburbs.

Heavy fighting erupted in several neighborhoods in Hama city, mainly in the neighborhood of Tariq Halab, meanwhile, the rebels made unexpected gains in the suburbs, seizing control of six towns and villages (Kafrnbouda, Helfaya, Kafarzeita, Latamna, Hamamiyat and Karnaz) and storming more than 15 military checkpoints including the one near the national hospital of Helfaya in addition to capturing a number of military tanks and heavy weapons. They also kept pushing forward throughout the suburbs and reaching just 10km away of the city center.

The rebels seized control of the neighbourhood of Hajar Aswad in the capital as fighting raged in the city of Deir Azzour where the rebels seized control of the neighbourhood of Ghasan Aboud. The rebels also attacked the central prison in the neighbourhood of Ghweran in the city of Hasaka in the northeast while kept breaking into the defences of the Deir Azzour airbase in the east, destroying a military transport aircraft as they approached the airbase’s runway.

Peaceful protesters from the mainly Druze city of Suwaida staged a sit-in protesting against the regime’s brutal crackdown against its opposition. They sit-in was then joined by hundreds of protesters who called for the ouster of Assad. The demonstration was then dispersed by regime security forces.

Regime forces shelled as many as 242 different areas, using all sort of heavy weaponry including cluster and phosphorous bombs as well as barrel bombs. Some 98 areas were shelled by mortar shells and 89 others were pounded by heavy artillery. More than 42 areas came under rocket shelling as fighter jets bombarded more than ten others.  

Regime forces killed at least 117 people, including 11 children, nine women and 40 rebel fighters. They killed 41 people in Damascus and its suburbs, the majority of whom died due to the heavy shelling in the neighbourhood of Hajar Aswad as well as in the provincial towns of Ain Mneen, Irbin and Daraya. Some 22 people were also killed in Daraa including a man and four of his daughters who were executed in the Refugee Camp in the city of Daraa. They killed 15 people in Hama including six rebel fighters in addition to 13 more in Aleppo, four of whom were summarily executed in the neighbourhood of Maidan. They killed seven people in Homs, three of whom were executed in the village of Zaraqa while dozens others were killed in Idlib, Deir Azzour and Hasaka.