Sunday, February 26, 2012

Syria: 57 (41 civilians and 16 soldiers) killed on Sunday, 98 (72 civilians and 26 soldiers) killed on Saturday

All in all, 155 killed in 2 days, more than 7,600 killed since the beginning of the uprising.
(Naharnet) On Saturday, 98 people were killed, 72 of them civilians, the Observatory said.
(Sky News) Regime forces killed 41 civilians in Syria on Saturday, while 16 soldiers died in explosions and clashes with rebels, a monitoring group said.

Among the civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 were killed in the flashpoint city of Homs, as a rebel stronghold there was shelled for the 22nd straight day.

Regime artillery targeted the rebel-held district of Baba Amr, and opened fire on the inner city quarters of Khaldiyeh and Hamidiyeh, as well as Bab Dreib and Bab Tadmur, the Britain-based Observatory said.

The Local Coordination Committees opposition group said security forces fired mortars at Khaldiyeh, and posted footage on the internet showing damage at the landmark mosque of Khaled bin al-Waleed, in the centre of Homs.

Meanwhile, 16 soldiers and members of the security forces were killed in clashes with rebels and by explosions in the provinces of Aleppo, Homs, and Idlib, the Observatory said.

Red Cross and Red Crescent ambulances had entered the besieged district of Homs on Friday and evacuated seven wounded Syrians, as well as 20 women and children.

But the ambulances did not evacuate two wounded Western journalists and the bodies of two others, said Saleh Dabbakeh, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A medical official in Lebanon told AFP that seven wounded Syrians from Baba Amr crossed the border illegally.

The Free Syrian Army usually transports wounded people to Lebanon using traditional routes and avoiding border guards.

The latest group crossed into eastern Lebanon and has been taken to a hospital in Tripoli, in the country's north.

More than 7600 people have been killed in violence across Syria since anti-regime protests erupted in March 2011, according to monitors.