Senior Syrian officer assassinated
Brig.-Gen. Issa al-Khouli became the first Syrian military officer to be killed in Damascus when he was assassinated by three gunmen outside his home in a norther Damascus suburb on Saturday. The SANA news agency says three gunmen opened fire at Brigedier-General Issa al-Khouli on Saturday morning as he left his home in the Damascus neighborhood of Rukn-Eddine. Al-Khouli was a doctor and the chief of a military hospital in the capital. The attack indicates that violence in Syria is reaching the tightly controlled capital, which has been relatively quiet compared to other cities.The Syrian army's officer corps is made up of members of Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, portending a civil war when and if Assad is deposed.
Syrian forces unleashed new tank and rocket bombardments on opposition neighborhoods of Homs on Saturday while diplomats sought United Nations backing for an Arab plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in Syria.
Activists said seven people were killed in the latest attacks in a week-long government siege of Homs, a battered city at the heart of the uprising to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
"The four included a 55-year-old woman. They were killed by shelling that hit their building in Bab Amro," a Homs opposition activist, Mohammad Hassan, told Reuters by satellite telephone.
The bloodshed followed a day of violence across Syria on Friday, when bombings targeting security bases killed at least 28 people in Aleppo and rebel fighters battled troops in a Damascus suburb after dark.
Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Damascus, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home