More children die in Syrian bombings

Last updated 08:11 15/01/2013
RALLYING SUPPORT: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks at the Opera House in Damascus.
WAGING WAR: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

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A Syrian airstrike has torn through a house in a rebellious suburb of Damascus, killing at least 13 people including eight children as the government ramps up its operations against the opposition strongholds ringing the capital.

Government forces have used warplanes and multiple rocket launchers over the past 24 hours in what activists described as some of the heaviest barrages of the Damascus region since President Bashar Assad's regime launched an offensive in November to dislodge rebels from the capital's outskirts.

The air raid struck a home with residents inside early on Monday (local time) in the southern suburb of Moadamiyeh, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights and other activists said. Neighbours pulled the 13 bodies from the rubble, the Observatory said, adding that at least seven more people remained trapped.

Syrian state media refuted that account, and blamed rebels for the deaths in Moadamiyeh. The official SANA news agency said "terrorists" fired a shell at the neighbourhood from nearby Daraya, hitting a residential building and causing casualties. The government refers to the rebels as terrorists.

"The noise from the bombardment is astounding today," a fighter who only identified himself as Iyad said by satellite phone from an area near Moadamiyeh.

"The regime is using all kinds of weaponry, they are shelling Moadamiyeh from nearby mountains," he said, adding that telephone lines to the area have been cut.



In another video, the bodies of at least two children could be seen, their faces bloodied from what appear to be head wounds. One toddler was lying on a gurney partially covered in green blankets as a woman is heard crying and screaming: "Why? Why, oh God, why?"

The caption says the children were less than a year old and were killed in the Moadamiyeh attack on Monday.

The videos appeared consistent with activist reports from the area.

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Fighter jets also carried out fresh airstrikes on Daraya, a strategic suburb close to a key military air base. Last week, the government said it has regained control over more than half of the suburb.

Iyad, the fighter outside Damascus who didn't give his full name because of security concerns, said the regime on Sunday dispatched reinforcements to Daraya. The fresh troops were trying to advance and hold the territory, but have been unsuccessful, he said.



Regime warplanes also bombed targets in the north on Monday, hitting rebel positions inside a sprawling air base in Idlib province in an effort to regain control of the facility.







The fighting has raged in Syria at a relentless pace despite a recent diplomatic push to try to secure a peaceful settlement to the nearly two-year-old conflict, which the UN estimates has killed more than 60,000 people.

An international aid agency warned of a humanitarian catastrophe from Syria's civil war, which has sent hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighboring countries.

In a new report released Monday, the New York based International Rescue Committee highlighted rape as a "primary reason" that many families fled the conflict, besides brutal killings, torture, targeted attacks and arrests

"Many women and girls relayed accounts of being attacked in public or in their homes, primarily by armed men. These rapes, sometimes by multiple perpetrators, often occur in front of family members," the report said, without identifying those responsible.

The fear of rape is so significant that many families are marrying off their daughters to "protect" them from rape. Others revert to early marriage if their daughters have been sexually assaulted "to safeguard their honour".

Activists have often reported cases of soldiers or pro-government gunmen attacking and raping women in Syria.

An independent commission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council last year said Assad's regime and pro-government militiamen were directly responsible for the killing of more than 100 civilians in the central region of Houla in late May and numerous other murders, unlawful killings, acts of torture, rape and other sexual violence and indiscriminate attacks on civilians.




Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticised Western demands that Assad step down. While acknowledging that the initiatives to talk to the opposition, "probably don't go far enough", Lavrov called on the opposition to come up with their plan to end the bloodshed.


Iyad, the fighter near Damascus, said Lavrov knows very well what the opposition wants.


- AP

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