Syrian regime air strikes targeted rebel-held police stations inside Aleppo city on Friday (September 14th), ahead of talks between visiting peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and opposition groups, AFP reported.
The agency said three loud explosions were heard in Damascus, where Brahimi spent his first night ahead of meetings with opposition groups tolerated by the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Brahimi, who was appointed earlier this month, said the conflict was getting worse, on arrival at Damascus airport on Thursday when at least 125 people died in violence across Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Brahimi, who succeeded former UN chief Kofi Annan following the failure of his six-point peace plan, met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Thursday night.
Muallem assured Brahimi of "Syria's full co-operation" but added that any initiative must be based on "the interests of the Syrian people and their freedom of choice without foreign intervention," Syria's official news agency SANA reported.
On the battlefront, Syrian regime forces on Friday used fighter jets and helicopter gunships to pound the city and province of Aleppo, where fierce clashes raged around a military airport, AFP reported.
Despite shelling by regime forces, residents of Marea, Aleppo city and towns across the northern province came out for anti-regime demonstrations after the weekly Muslim prayers.
In Damascus itself, three large explosions were heard in the late morning, according to an AFP reporter.
At least 18 people were killed on Friday, according to the Observatory, with the highest toll in Daraa province where eight civilians, including three children, were killed in air strikes on the town of Bosra al-Sham.
The Britain-based Observatory says that more than 27,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted in March last year. The United Nations puts the toll at 20,000.
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ADD A COMMENT (COMMENT POLICY) * DENOTES REQUIRED FIELD
READER COMMENTS
محمد شاهين
2012-9-17
God suffices me for He is the Best Disposer of affairs!
عبدالعزيز احمد
2012-9-17
The cruelty and the injustice that Bashar Al-Assad is committing against his people have now turned into killing, destruction and devastation all over Syria and against all the communities without mercy or pity.
غالب سليمان برهم
2012-9-16
The Arab countries were and are still silent towards what is happening in Syria. Shame on the Arabs! They are supposed to purge Syria, eliminate corruption and haul Bashaar before the International Criminal Court for his crimes against humanity. Syria is a member of the Arab League. It must be liberated, must be developed, must flourish, and must prosper. Also, the Arab League has been watching and acting disgracefully and shamefully towards Syria. The Arabs must end this sorrowful silence. They must advance and achieve comprehensive progress. They have to break this humiliating silence. They must help the Syrian refugees, protect them, provide them with all the facilities and means of comfort and safety from which they were deprived of in their country at the hands of Bashaar the tyrant. All of the Arab rulers should support the Syrian revolution with all their powers. They should behave and act away from their personal interests with the corrupt Syrian Government and Bashaar. Therefore, the Syrians must be protected and we must offer them all comfort and all their needs as well as everything that they lost during their escape, leaving their homes and money, because of the oppression and torture that are happening to them. The least help that can be offered to the Syrian refugees is to offer them proper care.
محمد طاهر
2012-9-16
The sounds of missiles, rockets and artillery are reverberating all over Syria. In addition, hundreds of Syrians are murdered everyday because of the frightening, brutal, violent and cruel crimes which are committed by the Syrian Army. In fact, the country has currently become a maze of ruins and corpses which are scattered everywhere wherein demolished houses are falling down in every corner of this country. You can hear nothing but the sound of guns and missiles which are used by the Syrian Army. They are also used by a small group of the Free Army against the criminals of the regime. Therefore, we will be responsible for the right of Syrians and right of their bloodshed and Allah will ask us about it, if we do not react against the harsh crimes of Bashar.
هناء علي جبار
2012-9-15
The crimes of Bashaar al-Assad have exceeded all limits of brutality, bloodshed and killing of innocent children and women everywhere in beloved Syria. We mourn with all sadness the martyrs throughout Syria, and we call on God to take revenge for them and for their parents from the one who killed them and shed their blood while they were defending their land and their rights, for their parents and their brothers in beloved Syria, and that those who were killed in the cause of God are alive and well with the Lord. O Bashaar, you must know that retribution from God is coming right away; every tear from the eyes of a bereaved mother or a drop of blood from a martyr or depriving any family of its breadwinner, whether father, brother or husband, and the blood that watered every inch in Syria in defense of the homeland against injustice and tyranny, shedding the blood, and tampering with the fortunes of the Syrian people who came out to defend their homeland against the tyrant, Bashaar al-Assad.