PHOTO: Smoke covers Damascus suburb of Douma after another regime attack on Monday
LATEST
- Report: US and Assad Warplanes Bomb Islamic State in Same Location in Homs Province
- Local Sources: Dozens of Hezbollah Fighters Killed in Failed Attack in Zabadani
- Rebel Faction Jaish al-Islam: Regime Carried Out Deadly Rocket Attacks on Damascus and Then Blamed Us
- 2nd Victim Dies from Claimed Chemical Attack by Islamic State in Northern Syria
- US-Backed Division 30: We Have Been Attacked by Assad’s Air Force
- Prime Minister: “Syria is Buzzing With Reconstruction”
TUESDAY FEATURES
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The regime maintained its aerial assault on civilian areas on Monday, with attacks from the Damascus suburbs — where hundreds have died in the last 10 days — to northwest Syria.
The Local Coordination Committees confirmed the deaths of 71 people across Syria yesterday, including 16 children and nine women. Of the casualties, 32 were near Damascus and 27 were in Idlib Province in the northwest.
Douma, the Damascus suburb where two mass killings have been suffered since August 16, was hit hard again on Monday, as were Hamouriya and Irbeen. There were more than 40 airstrikes on Monday morning alone near the capital.
Most of the deaths in Idlib were in the city of Jisr al-Shughour, captured by rebels in late April, and the town of al-Bara.
Aftermath of a strike on Douma on Monday:
Syrian State media claimed that “terrorist rocket attacks” killed five civilians and injured eight in areas of Aleppo city on Monday.
Report: US and Assad Warplanes Bomb Islamic State in Same Location in Homs Province
A pro-Assad website reports that both US and Assad regime warplanes have bombed the Islamic State in the town of Quraytayn in Homs Province.
If confirmed, the strikes would be the first by the two forces on the Islamic State in the same location on the same day.
Citing local sources, Al-Masdar News says the US carried out up to six raids on Quraytayn, west of the historic city of Palmyra.
One source said the Assad jets struck at a different time.
In addition to the U.S. airstrikes, the Syrian Arab Air Force (SAAF) launched their own series of aerial bombardments over Al-Quraytayn; however, the source confirmed that the SAAF and the U.S. Air Force conducted their airstrikes at different times in the day.
The Islamic State Quraytayn earlier this month, following the capture of Palmyra in May. The militants reportedly abducted about 250 civilians during the takeover. Last week, they destroyed a 5th-century monastery in the town.
Local Sources: Dozens of Hezbollah Fighters Killed in Failed Attack in Zabadani
An opposition website and claims on social media citing Hezbollah has lost dozens of fighters in a failed attack its offensive, alongside regime troops, against Zabadani in Damascus Province.
Citing local sources, the Eldorar al-Shamia site said the overnight attack from the west of the town lasted a couple of hours but gained no ground. Witnesses said they saw convoys of ambulances arriving from Damascus, 31 km (19 miles) to the southeast.
Other sources said that many of Hezbollah’s casualties fell in a rebel killing zone, so they could not be retrieved.
Rebel Faction Jaish al-Islam: Regime Carried Out Deadly Rocket Attacks on Damascus and Then Blamed Us
Jaish al-Islam, the leading rebel faction near Damascus, has denied firing rockets into Damascus that reportedly killed at least 11 people last weekend.
The Assad regime countered news of its killing of hundreds of people in bombing of Damascus suburbs with the claims of the rebel assault, including a rocket strike that left 10 people dead and injured 50 at the Damascus Central Prison, northeast of the capital.
Jaish al-Islam said that the regime had carried out the attacks and then blamed rebels:
The sectarian gang has destroyed the peaceful and civilian population and killed in Aleppo, Homs, Daraa, Damascus, Ghouta and other Syrian cities, using explosive barrels and all destructive lethal weapons for four years. For sectarian reasons will not hesitate to bombard our people in Damascus.
The faction said the rockets and missiles were launched from regime-controlled areas in Mount Qassioun and al-Saboura, west of Damascus.
2nd Victim Dies from Claimed Chemical Attack by Islamic State in Northern Syria
A second man has died from injuries from an alleged chemical weapons attack by the Islamic State last Friday.
The militants fired dozens of mortar shells, some of which apparently were filled with mustard gas, on rebels and civilians last Friday in the town of Mare’ in Aleppo Province in northern Syria.
The victim was named as 22-year-old Ahmed Hafez.
US-Backed Division 30: We Have Been Attacked by Assad’s Air Force
The Free Syrian Army’s Division 30, which has included the 54 rebels trained and equipped by the US to fight the Islamic State, says it has been attacked by the Assad regime’s air force.
The division put out the news in a statement on Tuesday. For security reasons, it said only that the incident occurred in northeastern Aleppo Province.
Division 30’s commanders have complained that the US has not given their fighters sufficient protection. Some of the division’s fighters, including the overall commander and his deputy, were abducted by Jabhat al-Nusra within days of the entry of the US-trained fighters into Syria last month. The Islamist faction then attacked Division 30’s headquarters in northwest Syria near the Turkish border, killing, injuring, and capturing more troops.
Prime Minister: “Syria is Buzzing With Reconstruction”
Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi has assured that his “war and crisis” government is coping with difficulties: “Syria will be buzzing with building and reconstruction.”
Al-Halqi told the General Federation of Trade Unions on Monday that the Government was dealing with “systematic targeting by terrorists of the services and economic infrastructure”, as well “as providing citizens’ needs in all areas and fighting corruption”.
Other Ministers explained that the Government is supporting construction companies, rehabilitating firms damaged by “terrorist attacks”, and dealing with the rising cost of medicine.
