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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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29Jun13
Syrian regime forces launch attack on rebel-held area of Homs
Troops loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have launched a military offensive against a rebel-held areas of Homs, a centre of the two-year-old uprising against his regime.
Activists said jets and mortars pounded rebel territory in Syria's third largest city and soldiers attacked the district of Khalidiyah, where state television reported they were making "great progress".
Video uploaded on the internet showed heavy explosions and clouds of white smoke after what the activists said were air strikes on the adjacent neighbourhood of Jouret al-Shiyyah.
The attack on Homs city follows steady military gains by Assad's forces, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants, in provincial Homs villages and towns close to the Lebanese border.
Shelling has been continuous since 10 a.m. in that area and in nearby Old Homs, activist Tariq Bardakhan told the Associated Press via Skype."Today is one of the most violent days that Homs has witnessed since the beginning of the revolution," he said.
Syrian state TV said the army has had "great success" in the battle for Homs after "killing many terrorists in the Khaldiya district."
Those gains have consolidated Assad's control over a corridor of territory linking the capital, Damascus, with the traditional heartland of his minority Alawite sect in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in the 27-month-old conflict in Syria. The civil war has also driven 1.7 million refugees to seek shelter in neighbouring countries.
[Source: The Guardian, London, 29Jun13]
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