Latest News from Syria – 16 December 2013

– Syrian regime bombs wreck havoc on civilian areas in Aleppo
– Whereabouts of kidnapped human rights activists still unknown

SYRIAN REGIME BOMBS WRECK HAVOC ON CIVILIAN AREAS IN ALEPPO

Syrian regime forces yesterday launched a horrific campaign of bombardment on civilian areas outside of the regime’s control in the northern city of Aleppo. War planes shelled many neighbourhoods with explosive barrels and vacuum bombs, killings tens of people and destroying their homes and entire streets. The images and stories coming out of Aleppo are heart-breaking.

Source: Syrian Coordination Committees, Aleppo Media Centre

COMMENT FROM THE EDITOR:
Even if anyone in the world still believes that the Syrian regime and its allies (the Russian and Iranian governments) are fighting ‘Islamist terrorists’ and ‘foreign infiltrators’, is the way to do that to bomb the hell out of civilian areas and kill innocent children, women and men and completely destroy what’s left of their homes and neighbourhoods? Or was it just a brutal show of force, or a collective punishment for living in areas outside the regime’s control?

Report from our North Syria correspondent

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WHEREABOUTS OF KIDNAPPED HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS STILL UNKNOWN

The fate and whereabouts of four prominent human rights activists kidnapped last week is still unknown. Razan Zaitouna, Samira Al-Khalil, Nazem Al-Hamadi and Wa’el Hamada were kidnapped on 10 December by unknown armed men in the besieged town of Douma, near the capital Damascus. The four worked for the Violations Documentation Center in Syria, a well-known Syrian organisation that has been tirelessly documenting the Syrian regime’s crimes and human rights violations, but has also been critical of Islamist armed groups, such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham, when these have committed human rights violations.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and the VDC has not officially pointed the finger at any party. An international campaign demanding their release has ensued.

Source: Violations Documentation Centre in Syria, http://www.vdc-sy.info/
Here is a video message from Razan Zaitouna from 2011:

COMMENT FROM NAAME SHAAM’S SYRIA NEWS MONITOR:
It is interesting to see the Syrian regime’s media, as well as those of its allies (Russia Today, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, etc.), reporting this story, whilst ignoring the hundreds of human rights activists killed and disappeared in the regime’s prisons. Their coverage, however, was still quieter than that of ‘Syrian rebels executing civilians families’ in ‘Adra (not very far from Douma, where Zaitouna and her colleagues were kidnapped) or ‘Islamist insurgents kidnapping 120 Kurds in Aleppo’. Neither story, of course, is very accurate and straightforward, but that’s another story.

 

Report from Naame Shaam’s correspondents in Aleppo and Damascus.

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