President al-Assad have you lost your mind? Stop Shelling of Residential Areas!

Syria: Stop Shelling of Residential Areas
Hundreds Killed, Wounded in Homs, Denied Medical Care
9 February, 2012 – Human Rights Watch

(New York) – The Syrian government should immediately stop its shelling of residential neighborhoods in the city of Homs, Human Rights Watch said today. Since February 3, 2012, the attacks have killed more than 300 persons in the city, according to Syrian monitoring groups, and wounded hundreds others, including women and children. No adequate medical assistance is available to the victims due to a blockade of the city by government forces and fear of arrest if treated at government-controlled hospitals, Human Rights Watch said.

Eight witnesses to the attacks interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that government troops have fired hundreds of “shells and mortars” into populated neighborhoods. Videos and photos of the attacks, reviewed by Human Rights Watch’s military experts, and accounts from international journalists on the ground, confirm that government forces launched long-range indirect fire attacks into densely populated areas.

“This brutal assault on residential neighborhoods shows the Syrian authorities’ contempt for the lives of their citizens in Homs,” said Anna Neistat, associate emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “Those responsible for such horrific attacks will have to answer for them.”

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that government forces launched large-scale attacks, involving shelling and rockets, on several neighborhoods in Homs on the evening of February 3. “Hani,” a witness from the Bab `Amro neighborhood, said that security forces manning nearby checkpoints and positioned on rooftops first opened fire on a protest near Al-Zahire mosque at around 6 pm, and shortly thereafter started shelling the neighborhood. Hani, who sustained bullet wounds to his left shoulder and right leg in the attack, said that Syrian forces fired rockets from the west and from the direction of Homs University dorms located to the south-east of Bab `Amro.

Another witness, “Wasim,” who spoke to Human Rights Watch from Tel al-Shoghour area, located close to Bab `Amro, said that the shelling of Bab `Amro originated from neighboring areas considered to support the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The fire, according to Wasim, also came from the Homs University dorms, about 1,500 meters south-east of Bab `Amro; and Insha’at neighborhood, north of Bab `Amro.

“Samer,” a witness to the attack on the Khalidiyya neighborhood in the evening of February 3, told Human Rights Watch that the attack started after the Free Syrian Army attacked and took over a security checkpoint connecting Khalidiyya and Bayyada neighborhoods in Homs and residents of Khalidiyya went to the streets to celebrate. “Samer” said that around 9.30 pm government forces started intensive shelling of the neighborhood that lasted for several hours. According to the witness, the fire came from the direction of the Air Force Intelligence facility located on the highway leading to Hama, some 500 meters from Khalidiyya. The security forces, according to the witness, used mortars to attack the neighborhood. …more