8:01 PM - 27 Dec 12 · Details
Christmas of course means nothing to the Assad regime who have kept up their relentless bombardment of their citizens across Syria over the last three days.
Explosion Wadi Sharia, Hama
In the Wadi Sharia neighbourhood of Hama on Tuesday a massive explosion destroyed more homes and more than 1,000 people are reported to have fled to Turkey from the area around Halfaya in rural Hama where the bakery queue was attacked by jet fire last Saturday (scroll down, see below).
In the Tafas district of Deraa in the market area 9 people died from shell and rocket fire.
Another 13 people were reported executed in Deraa on Tuesday. On the same day regime forces brutally shelled the village of North Zafarana in rural Homs, reportedly using both phosphorus and cluster bombs.
Deir Balbeh, also in Homs province, came under severe bombardment and a ground invasion is expected. 9 women who fled the violence in the area were arrested and have not been seen since. In Ma’rrat al-Numan, in Idlib province, a MIG-21 is reported to have dropped phosphorous bombs yesterday morning, HERE:
Deir el-Zour continues to be attacked as the Opposition fighters continue their assault on the city’s military airbase but large areas of the suburbs are being destroyed by shellfire that comes from Government forces on the airfield, HERE:
Still With Hope Despite The Pain
Further clashes have also been reported around the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus over the last two days and the Syrian Army has continued its campaign against the Sunni districts of Daraya, Douma, Harasta, Kafarbatna and Zabadani, though without capturing any of them.
41 KILLED IN GOVERNMENT ATTACK ON SIMPLE VILLAGE BUT FSA DESTROY 6 MORE AIRCRAFT:
The worst Government atrocity seems to have been an attack by Army tanks on the village of Mazraat Kahtaniya, whose houses are mainly made of mud, killing at least 41 people, including 20 children, around 8 kilometres north-west of Raqqa.
On the other side Opposition forces report continued successes, including the reported downing of 2 Government jets over the suburbs of Hama, a helicopter over the regime base of Mezzeh near Damascus and the destruction of three helicopter gunships on the ground at the Assad airbase of Menegh near Aleppo.
Also in Aleppo, Opposition fighters have continued their assault against the Police Academy at Khan Asal, HERE: and operations against the airbases at Quwayres and Menegh. The fighters also captured a useful prize, a warehouse full of flour in the western suburbs of Aleppo, HERE:
In Idlib province the Opposition have relaunched their attacks on the army bases at Wadi al-Daif and Hamdiya near the town of Ma’arrat al-Numan, which so far they have been unsuccessful in liberating, but have finally succeeded in capturing the citadel above Harem near the Turkish border, HERE:
In Hama province fierce fighting is currently reported around the town of Marek, which opposition fighters only took a few days ago.
ASSAD’S SENIOR OFFICERS CONTINUES TO RESIGN, WHILE DEFECTED MIG-21 REVEALS INTERESTING SECRETS:
On the defection front, an interesting one this week was that of the head of Assad’s Military Police Chief, Major General Abdulaziz Al-Shalal , who said on video from Turkey that he had resigned because of the attacks on civilians and because the Army, instead of protecting people had turned into a “violent, murderous gang”.
Major General Abdulaziz Al-Shalal
He also “confirmed” that the Army had used “chemicals” against the Opposition in Homs on 23rd December.
Some Opposition activists are claiming that they have recorded the use of chemical weapons “18 times in Damascus, Idlib, Homs and Hama”, though this remains unconfirmed.
Opposition activists played down the defection of the Chief of the Military Police, saying that Al-Shalal was due to retire in January anyway and that his main responsibility had been that of disciplining soldiers. The BBC has a video report, HERE:
Within the next 48 hours, according to Opposition activists, defection announcements are also expected from Colonel Anwar Ruslan, the Deputy Head of Investigation in the Syrian General Intelligence division, and Colonel Ya’aroub Al Shara, the chairman of the regime’s Political Security division, both of whom are expected to reveal intimate details of how the regime works and its policies.
There is also a report that 27 Christian officers have defected in Qamishli in the north-east of Syria and unconfirmed reports that the letter which Assad’s Deputy Foreign Minister took to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela last month did in fact contain a request to consider granting his family asylum there.
In interesting reports emanating from Israel, it is suggested that the Syrian Air Force plane that landed in Jordan in in June, a MIG-21 flown by Colonel Hassan Hamada, had been adapted to carry weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical weapons, and could be even flown remotely without a pilot like a drone aircraft, according to US experts who examined it.
This may explain why the Syrian government put a lot of pressure on Jordan at the time and demanded that both the plane and the defecting pilot should be returned.
