Syrian government forces today struck back against rebels with attacking
helicopters and shelling around Damascus after an audacious bomb attack
that killed three senior members of the ruling regime.
The whereabouts of President Bashar Assad, who has not been seen
publically since yesterday’s blast, his wife and his three young
children remained unknown.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government
forces were firing heavy machine guns and mortar shells and fighting
with rebels in a number of neighbourhoods in the capital.
Many residents were fleeing the Mezzeh neighbourhood after troops
surrounded it and posted snipers on rooftops while exchanging gunfire
with opposition forces.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria,
said rebels damaged one helicopter and disabled three military vehicles.
Rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at a police station in the
Jdeidet Artouz area, killing at least five officers, the group said.
Activist’s claims could not be independently verified. The Syrian government bars most media from working in the country.
Maj Gen Robert Mood, the Norwegian head of nearly 300 UN observers sent
to the country to monitor a cease-fire that never took effect, said the
mission was not working. His comments came ahead of a planned UN
Security council vote on whether to renew the mission’s mandate, which
expires on Friday, and impose new sanctions on the Damascus regime.
That vote had been scheduled for yesterday but was postponed after key
Western nations and Russia failed to agree the text of a resolution
aimed at ending the escalating violence.
“It pains me to say, but we are not on the track for peace in Syria,” he told reporters in Damascus.
sources-PTI
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