Syria: Death toll rises, Children and Women killed as UN Security Council holds talks
Sources are reporting that militant forces loyal to the Assad regime attacked residential areas with machineguns and rockets, with at least 30 people reported killed in the city of Homs:
Damascus, Syria (CNN) — Deaths mounted in Syria on Friday as world powers plan crucial talks about the conflict there.
Soldiers and security forces killed 135 people on Thursday and Friday, said the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition activist group.
The group said most of the people were killed in Homs and dozens also died in Hama and Daraa. CNN cannot independently confirm events in Syria because it is limited from reporting on the ground. Of those reported dead, 18 were children and eight were women.In violence Friday in the Daraa province town of Nawa, 11 civilians died at the hands of pro-regime militias. The assault occurred during a funeral procession for a high school student whom security forces killed Thursday.
“The regime’s forces encircled the procession and responded with intense gunfire which led to additional martyrs. … (President Bash al-Assad’s) security forces and thugs raided the private hospital in the town and attempted to kidnap the wounded,” the group said. It said activist Bashar Abu al-Sal, popular for leading chants in demonstrations, was among the 11 dead. Dozens also were wounded, it said.
In Idlib, a car bomb exploded at a security checkpoint at the entrance of the city. It killed and injured members of the Syrian security forces, the activist group said, without providing a breakdown.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency on Friday said terrorists killed law enforcement and civilians, including a 10-year-old boy in a Damascus neighborhood, and gunned down a law enforcement member in Homs. It said that terrorist bombs caused injuries in Deir Ezzor and Idlib and that the house of a Lebanese journalist was torched in Jabal al-Zawia. The government has consistently blamed the unrest in Syria on terrorist groups.