LATEST: Opposition Coalition Denies Regime Claim of “Massacre” at Maan in Hama Province

TUESDAY FEATURES

Aid agencies said another 300 women, children, and elderly were evacuated from the Old City of Homs on Monday, bringing the total to 900 since Friday.

Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi claimed 460 people were moved. He said only 85 were supposed to go, but “a large number of people who were besieged…(begged) to leave in spite of all pressures exerted on them by the armed groups to stay”.

Opposition and local activists have expressed concern that the Assad regime is using the evacuations to isolate men in the Old City in preparation for attacks. They have claimed, with support from a Wall Street Journal reporter, that some men among the evacuated have been detained.

The evacuation is also taking headlines from the weeks of bombing carried out by Syrian forces in areas such as Aleppo Province and the Damascus suburb of Darayya.

The Local Coordination Committees said 121 people were killed across Syria on Monday, including 14 women and 14 children, Of the dead, 56 were in Aleppo Province, 21 in Damascus and its suburbs, 15 in Daraa Province, and 10 in Deir Ez Zor Province.


Opposition Coalition Denies Regime Claim of “Massacre” at Maan in Hama Province

The Syrian National Coalition has denied the Assad regime’s claim that civilians were killed as insurgents took the village of Maan in Hama Province last weekend.

The Coalition said in a statement:

The group of battalions which took control of the village of Maan in rural Hama two days ago, has made it clear…that their priority has been and always will be protecting civilians and ridding the country of a long-time dictator.

The group said only shabiha (pro-Assad militia) and armed militiamen were among those killed in the operation, despite the Assad regime’s allegations that the group was involved in killing civilians. This empty accusation is a desperate attempt to discredit rebels in front of the Syrian people and the world.

The village of Maan, in the north eastern countryside of Hama, was a launching pad from where Assad’s shabiha used to start their campaigns of intimidation and terrorism against the Syrian people calling for freedom and democracy.