UN envoy ‘concerned’ about barrel bombs killing civilians in Syria
The SNC’s Media Office released a statement, of which ARA News received a copy, saying that the Syrian defense minister in the interim government, Major General Salim Idris, said the Zabadani city and other areas in Syria “are exposed to an external invasion led by Iran”.
Staffan de Mistura, citing local sources, said the Syrian military had dropped a large number of barrel bombs on Zabadani “causing unprecedented levels of destruction and many deaths among the civilian population”.
The Syrian National Coalition for Revolutionary Forces and Opposition (SNC) called on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, to bear legal responsibilities for what is happening in Syria concerning the “systematic crimes” committed by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad with an Iranian support.
Fierce clashes continued overnight in the Zabadani area, with heavy aerial bombardments in and around the city and reports of casualties on both sides, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Wednesday. “The “Army of Conquest” have retaliated by firing rockets and heavy mortar shells on two villages near Idlib, Al Foua and Kefraya, where a substantial number of civilians are trapped”.
“In both cases, civilians are tragically caught in the middle of the fighting”.
It did not give a figure for Syrian army losses in and around Zabadani, which lies north of Damascus and in February 2012 became the first town to fall into rebel hands.
Sunni fighters say the army has now encircled them within a five square kilometre radius inside the city centre, and cut arms and food supplies from nearby towns.
Hezbollah has long been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, but Tuesday’s action was directed at three senior military officials – Mustafa Badr al-Din, Ibrahim Aqil, and Fu’ad Shukr – for their role in coordinating or participating in the group’s support for Assad’s government in Syria’s ongoing civil war.
http://www.ledgergazette.com/un-envoy-concerned-about-barrel-bombs-killing-civilians-in-syria/14371/