Govt airstrike kills dozens in central Syria – activists [video included]

Russia Today
December 23, 2012

Screenshot from youtube.com @Souria2011archives / Video titled “Assad MIG Mass Murder of Bakery Bread Line in Halfaya 12-23-12”

An airstrike by Syrian regular forces killed over 180 people in the town of Halfaya, not far from the central city of Hama, says the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“In Halfaya, regime forces bombarded a bakery and committed a massacre that killed dozens of people, including women and children, and wounded many others,” said Lebanon’s Naharnet, quoting the Local Coordination Committees, a grassroots network of activists.

Activists say the strike hit a line of people queuing outside a bakery. The account is supported by an amateur video released on YouTube which shows scores of dead or wounded people in the rubble. The footage also depicts men carrying victims out of a bombed one-story block, and a crater in the road beside it.

“A MiG [jet] has attacked! Look at [President Bashar] Assad’s weapons. Look, world, look at the Halfaya massacre,” says the unidentified cameraman, adding the ruined building used to be a bakery.

The video, however, has not yet been independently verified. If it is authentic, it remains unclear why Syrian forces targeted the town. But reports suggest this might have been a counter-strike as Halfaya appears to have fallen into rebel hands. Moreover, on Monday the opposition forces claimed to be launching an all-out assault on army positions across the Hama region, which has been one of the centres of the uprising.

In recent days, rebels have been clashing with government troops in the region around Halfaya, according to the Associated Press. Activists say rebels have taken over a number of regime checkpoints and proclaiming Halfaya a “liberated area“. It’s part of a wider strategic effort to gain control over the country’s main north-south highway.

Meanwhile, the United Nations and Arab League special envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has arrived in Damascus to discuss ways to end the civil unrest. Brahimi was forced to travel via Beirut because of fighting near Damascus airport. The special envoy is expected to meet Syria’s foreign minister and President Assad.

Syria’s crisis began in March 2011 with political protests which eventually fomented into a civil war, with scores of rebel groups across the country battling Assad’s forces. The President says he is fighting a foreign insurgency. The conflict has taken lives of over 40,000, Syrians and created a further 164,000 refugees.