IS forces destroy infamous Syrian prison

Source:AFP Published: 2015-5-31 23:58:01

As Palmyra jail explodes, regime barrel bombs kill scores in Aleppo region


A woman and a boy run down a street in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo following a reported barrel bomb attack by Syrian government forces, on Saturday. Photo: AFP



 Islamic State (IS) group jihadists demolished a notorious government prison in the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Saturday, as barrel bombs dropped by regime helicopters killed more than 70 civilians in Aleppo.

In neighboring Iraq, government forces retook an area west of the city of Ramadi, which IS overran earlier in May.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS planted explosives that "largely destroyed" the Palmyra jail, which was for decades a symbol of abuses meted out on regime opponents.

Opponents of President Bashar al-Assad welcomed on social media the destruction of the long-feared prison at Palmyra, which IS seized 10 days ago after government forces pulled out. 

In rebel-held areas of Aleppo province including the city itself, "at least 71 civilians were killed, and dozens wounded when regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs," the Observatory said.

In the worst carnage, 59 civilians, all male, were killed at a market in the jihadist-controlled town of Al-Bab, the Britain-based monitoring group's director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"People often gather on Saturday mornings at the Al-Hail market in Al-Bab, which is why the number of dead was so high," explained Abdel Rahman.

He said 12 people were also killed in barrel bomb attacks on Aleppo's rebel-held Al-Shaar neighborhood, including eight members of a single family.

Victims' bodies were laid out on the streets of the neighborhood, the limp blood-covered hand of one of them protruding from under a blanket, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.

Barrel bombs - crude weapons made of containers packed with explosives -have often struck schools, hospitals, and markets in Syria.

But Saturday's death toll was among the highest.

"This is one of the biggest massacres that regime planes have committed since the beginning of 2015," said the Syrian Revolution General Commission activist group.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said in a statement, "The news of aerial bombing by Syrian helicopters on a civilian area of the Aleppo neighborhood of Al-Shaar deserves the most strong international condemnation."

"The use of barrel bombs must stop," he said. "All evidence shows that the overwhelming majority of the civilian victims in the Syrian conflict have been caused by the use of such indiscriminate aerial weapons."

He said it was "totally unacceptable that the Syrian air force attacks its own territory in an indiscriminate way, killing its own citizens."

More than 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011 demonstrations spiraled into a complex civil war. Several rounds of peace talks have made no headway and the UN envoy's efforts to broker a cease-fire in the second city of Aleppo were rejected by rebel factions.

Despite recent losses, Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi on Sunday pledged the army would "liberate every foot of Syrian territory."

"The army will defeat terrorist organizations and will hold them accountable for their massacres against the innocent," he said, according to Syria's official news agency SANA.



Posted in: Mid-East

blog comments powered by Disqus