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10 people were killed by a truck bomb attack in a regime-controlled village in Homs on Monday, state television reported.
“The terrorist explosion in Haraqi village in Homs province was caused by a tanker truck bomb. The initial toll says 10 people were killed, and major damage was caused to houses”, state television said. The attack is especially worrisome as Presidential election will be held in the war-ravaged country only a day later, with incumbent President Bashar al-Assad expected to stay in power. The opposition has labeled the poll, which will only be held in regime-controlled parts of the country, as a “farce”.
Earlier in the day, over 50 people, including 9 children, were killed in rebel rocket and mortar fire that lasted for two days in regime held parts of Aleppo, monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “At least 50 people, including nine children, were killed in mortar and rocket fire on regime-held areas of Aleppo on Saturday and Sunday”, the Observatory said, adding that 23 people were killed in bombardments on Saturday, and 27 were killed on Sunday. It also said that the casualties in the weekend came after a total of 230 people were killed over the past two months in their bombardment of regime-controlled parts of Aleppo. Rami Abdel Rahman, the Observatory’s Director, added that “the escalation by rebels against regime-held areas is linked to the imminent presidential election”.
The Observatory also reported that around 2,000 civilians, and more than 500 of them being children, were killed in regime-conducted airstrikes on rebel-held parts of Aleppo since January. “Targeting civilians is a war crime and the fact that the regime uses barrel bombs to target civilians in rebel areas does not justify targeting civilians in regime areas”, Rahman added.
Since a rebel charge in July 2012, Aleppo has been divided into ant-regime and pro-regime areas. Over 162,000 have died in Syria in the past three years, and almost half the country’s population has been forced to flee their homes.
