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SYRIAN FIGHTER JETS pounded rebel areas across the country yesterday with scores of airstrikes that anti-regime activists called the most widespread bombing in a single day since Syria’s troubles started 19 months ago.
The death toll for what was supposed to be a four-day cease-fire between the regime of President Bashar Assad and rebels seeking his overthrow exceeded 500.
Fighter jets
Activists said more than 80 people were killed nationwide on Monday while videos posted online showed fighter jets screaming over Syrian towns, mushroom clouds rising from neighborhoods and residents searching the remains of damaged and collapsed buildings for bodies.
The airstrikes focused on rebel areas in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, as well as on restive areas in and around the capital Damascus.
But analysts say that rampant defections and rising rebel capabilities have lessened the regime’s ability to take back and hold rebel areas, making air strikes its most effective way to fight back.
Yesterday was supposed to be the fourth and final day of an internationally sanctioned cease-fire to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest periods of the Muslim calendar. But violence marred the truce almost immediately after it was to go into effect on Friday and continued apace through the weekend.
Ban Ki-moon
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he was “deeply disappointed” that the warring parties didn’t respect the cease-fire and called on the divided international community to unite to stop the bloodshed.
As long as the international community remains at odds, the needs, attacks and suffering will only grow.
Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who represents the UN and the Arab League and presented the plan, told reporters in Moscow that he’d keep trying to lessen the violence and “put an end to it.”
World powers remain divided on how to stop Syria’s crisis, with the US and many Arab and European nations calling for Assad to step down while Russia, China and Iran continue to back the regime.
Anti-regime activist say more than 35,000 people have been killed since the anti-Assad uprising started in March 2011. The holiday cease-fire was the first international effort in months to try to stop the violence, and it accomplished little.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 500 people had been killed during the four-day holiday. It said more than 80 people were killed on Monday and that the number was likely to rise further.
But in a change, Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Observatory, said the number of airstrikes spiked on Monday.
Among the hardest hit areas was the northern town of Maaret al-Numan, which rebels seized earlier this month only to face heavy retaliation from the military.
Car bomb
Also yesterday, a car bomb exploded in the Damascus suburb of Jarmana, knocking balconies off of residential buildings and sending firemen rushing to fight the blaze, according to TV footage. The state news agency SANA said 11 people were killed and 67 wounded. The Observatory said five people were killed.
In Turkey, about 150 members of the Syrian opposition met Monday to discuss how to manage rebel-held areas and plan for a post-Assad future.
Abdelbaset Sieda, president of the Syrian National Council, said the Syrian regime was losing its grip on power and that the opposition must be prepared to rebuild the devastated country.
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@The Journal. Why are you quoting the “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”. You surely know this is some lunatic in a semi detached in Coventry at this stage. Give yourself some credibility and quote credible news agencies or people actually in the ground. Weak lazy journalism.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights? This source of information is being quoted in a major news article? What has happened to journalism?
This is another propaganda news article. The Syrian government has every right to defend itself against foreign Islamic terrorist groups. The so ‘rebels’ are mainly made of foreign fighters intent on causing mayhem.
It was the rebels who broke the recent ceasefire yet it has been portrayed as if the Syrian government broke the ceasefire. The so called ‘rebels’ are divided and cannot agree on anything and the majority of them have no intention of shopping their war crimes as they are on a holy war.
Hopefully the Syrian government can defeat these terrorists and then real change through dialogue with the peaceful opposition grips such as the National Coordination Committee can occur.
Sorry BLowe but it is simply not true to say that the majority of rebels are foreign jihadists – all the indications from the ground are that foreign fighters only form a small minority, and many of these are operating indepently. The FSA have recognised foreign jihadists as a threat to the Syrian people and believe that many of them just crossed the border from Iraq bringing their weapons with them.
Your definitive claim that the rebels were first to break the cease fire is not credible either. Each side have blamed the other, so the bottom line is that only the fighters on the ground know where the truth lies, not you, not me and not anyone else.
I don’t care who the rebels are. The use of fighter jets in urban areas is so indiscriminate it amounts to both a war crime and genocide. The international community must step in now and Iran, China and Russia have to put aside their selfishness and join with the UN in sorting this out.
I’ll tell you what is a warm crime Gerry. The so called ‘rebels’ threatening to attack civilian airports and airlines. The ‘rebels’ placing anti aircraft guns on top of civilian buildings. The ‘rebels’ blockading entire towns and villages and cutting off all supplies. The ‘rebels’ executing farmers for harvesting crops. The ‘rebels’ using members of Christianity as human shields. The ‘rebels’ summarily executing captured soldiers. It goes on and on. These so called ‘rebels’ are bad business.
To Gary, You say the U.N. should step in, I would agree with you if u.n. we’re sending in robots, but our young soldiers with one tied behind their back and be beheaded if taken as prisoner and for what? To create yet another fanatic Islamic republic. No thanks keep out of it.
@B Lowe Are you completely incapable of examining both points of view and drawing a balanced view? You constantly ignore the fact that it was the Assad’s regime decision to use lethal force on unarmed peaceful demonstrators that brought about the chaos that now ensues in Syria. You are very quick to point out evidence of foreign involvement and the atrocities you allege the rebels have carried out, however, you disregard the fact that the Syrian regimes constant maltreatment of its own people has given the jihadists a theoretical reason to interfere.
give it a rest b Lowe
Mattoid, check Sky news not known for their love of the Syrian regime. They too are beginning to realise the so called rebels are financed extreme wahabists from Saudi Arabia. In the last few weeks the Al Quida rebels now are the forefront of the rebel movement. Even Turkish border guards are spooked by the black al Quida flags raised on captured border posts. To think the EU is backing this shower ( along with Gilmore) is laughable.
There is absolutely no doubt that foreign islamists are on the ground and pursuing their own agenda. My only dispute is with the claimed scale of jihadist involvement and the links to the ‘mainstream’ FSA (it is folly to attempt to pigeonhole rebels as a single unified movement – the situation is very complex, for example it is known that in certain parts of the country there are local warlords fighting against the regime, who have no interest in democracy, just in strengthening their own position).
My point is that just because there is a certain element fighting against the regime does not mean that all others fighting the regime are the same.
have your say