Missile shelling on Aleppo kills 29, wounds 150

Three missiles crashed into residential areas of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on late Friday, killing at least 29 and wounding 150 others, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“There are people still buried under rubble among them a 10-member family, while most of the wounded are in critical condition,” Rami Abdel Rahman head of the Observatory told dpa.

Video footage posted online showed the aftermath in the area of Al Hamra, including people carrying away the wounded and heavy destruction.

Activists in Aleppo said Russian-made Scud-type missiles were fired on the area and more than 65 houses were destroyed in the shelling.

The observatory said the heavy shelling on Aleppo also targeted a hospital in the neighbourhood of Al Maadi. Initial reports say 25 people were killed or wounded there.

Abu Omar al Homsi, an activist based in Aleppo told dpa the heavy shelling is “undescribable” and called on the Syrian opposition to take a firm stand for “the world silence” on the Aleppo shelling.

The shelling on the rebel-held regions in Aleppo came a day after a spate of car bombings in central Damascus killed 83 people, including at least 60 in an attack near the headquarters of the ruling Baath party.

UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, whose mission was extended earlier Friday for six months, strongly condemned Thursday’s explosions inside the capital, describing them as “savage and horrible.”

“Nothing could justify such horrible actions that amount to war crimes under international law,” he added in a statement.

The Syrian regime have blamed the attack near the ruling Baath party’s main offices on “terrorists” linked to al-Qaeda.

The UN estimates that about 70,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar al—Assad’s regime began in March 2011.

The surge in violence across Syria has increased the number of refugees in neighbouring countries like Lebanon.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Friday that at least 305,753 refugees have fled Syria and to Lebanon since the start of the conflict in the war-torn country.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said earlier this month that the number of people fleeing fighting in Syria could reach 1.1 million by June.

Meanwhile, the main opposition Syrian Coalition said they had agreed to form a government for rebel—held areas.

“We agreed to form a government to run the affairs of liberated areas, and the composition of the new government will be decided in a meeting on March 2,” said Walid al Bunni, spokesman of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.

Sources at the coalition who have been meeting in Cairo for the past two days said the meeting would be held in Istanbul.

Earlier on Friday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) demanded access to all Syrian prisons following the deaths of two opposition activists.

Source http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/missile-shelling-on-aleppo-kills-29-wounds-150/article4445853.ece