2:01 PM - 24 Dec 12 · Details
ASSAD REGIME MASSACRES INNOCENT BAKERY QUEUE IN HAMA AND KILLS MORE WITH UNKNOWN CHEMICAL SUBSTANCE IN HOMS:
TIMELINE – 24th DECEMBER 2012 13.45 GMT:
In the horrendous attack on a bakery queue in Halfaya north of Hama, first reported yesterday, at least 94 people were killed, including women and children, and many injured, as many as 50 critically.
Carnage After Bakery Bombing in Halfaya, Hama
So great was the carnage caused by an Assad jet strike, that in the confusion the first reports spoke of 200 or even 300 dead and wounded.
Hundreds, if not as many as a thousand, were queuing outside the bakery which was baking bread for the first time in 3 days having previously run out of flour, and word had spread.
Opposition fighters, who had captured the town from Government forces just a week ago, helped pull victims from under piles of rubble and bricks. Attacks on recently captured towns is a regular occurrence practised by Assad’s military.
The regime tried to capitalise on the incident and SANA, the state media, put out its own version claiming that “terrorists” had massacred women and children and then shot video images to accuse the Syrian army when the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in Syria”. The not credible state media report also claimed that the Syrian army intervened during the assault and “killed and wounded many terrorists”.
In more cowardly attacks on civilians, helicopter gunships were reported dropping barrel bombs on Safira near Aleppo, killing 13 and a jet cluster bomb attack on the Damascus suburb of Nashabiya killed 8 and wounded many more.
The President of the National Coalition, Moaz al-Khatib, described the attack on the bakery queue in Halfaya as a message from Assad “to the Syrian people: either you die or accept the slavery imposed on you”. The BBC has a video report, HERE:
In Homs there were reports that a shell had sprayed a chemical substance on residents falling mainly in the neighbourhoods of Khaldiyeh and Bayada, causing immediate breathing difficulties, headaches, temporary blindness, muscle weakness, nausea and vomiting. 6 people are reported to have died as medics struggled to comprehend exactly what they were dealing with.
The most likely chemical group is organophosates, which cause all the above symptoms, including death, and are widely available in commonly used herbicides and pesticides worldwide. This video, in which the interviewer is leading the witnesses in their statements and being more a nuisance than a help, shows scenes from the field hospital treatment room, (English sub-titles) HERE:
HEAVY CLASHES CONTINUE ACROSS SYRIA, BUT FSA HAVE THE UPPER HAND CONSTANTLY CAPTURING MORE WEAPONS TO USE AGAINST ASSAD:
Elsewhere in Hama province, where Opposition fighters have made rapid gains in the last week, the Assad regime has sent a convoy of armoured vehicles and troops to try and retake Morek, but the Opposition, well stocked with anti-tank weapons, are resisting, HERE:
Not far away another Government convoy was attacked near Al-Ramlah, resulting in death and injury to many Assad troops.
Near Deir el-Zour, Syrian Army troops stationed on the military airbase there shelled the town of Mouhassan and jets bombed the nearby villages of Hussiniyeh and Mrai’eiyeh where Opposition fighters have gathered to launch attacks on the airfield.
Violent clashes are also taking place in the suburbs of Deir el-Zour and during the night the oil pipeline to the city was struck by an explosion, setting it on fire, HERE:
In Aleppo, the Free Syrian Army have launched yet another attack on the Air Intelligence building and a number of buildings at the Mengh helicopter base have been set on fire, HERE:
Opposition fighters are also claiming that they now have control of the Mengh suburb itself, just a few kilometres from the airbase and have taken the Tal Anjar army base a little to the south-west. If correct, it would give the FSA control of about 80% of the suburbs surrounding Aleppo city.
In the taking of the 135 Brigade base at Hawa in northern Aleppo province yesterday, 200 fighters using fog and rain to cover their advance, gained control of boxes of Kalashnikovs, stocks of ammunition, field guns and unused anti-aircraft guns still wrapped in brown paper.
