The city has been tense following the alleged fatal shooting of a senior military officer by Suleiman Assad, a relative of the president, over a road rage incident last week.
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Hizbollah and Syrian troops have been trying to fully capture the town, near the border with Lebanon, for more than a month. A coalition of rebel groups retaliated by attacking Foua and Kfarya.
Around 1,000 people staged a rare protest demanding Suleiman Assad’s execution amid widespread anger over the killing. It comes amid mounting speculation that the Syrian leader’s grip on power is slipping during a four-year civil war that has taken a heavy toll on the Syrian military, causing huge manpower losses that have helped rebel forces recently seize significant territory.
A rebel advance in northwestern Syria has left a key town in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s heartland subject to intense shelling from nearby militant outposts. A large number of civilians are trapped there by the fighting. After unprecedented mediation from Iran and Turkey, backers of regime and rebels respectively, the warring parties announced a ceasefire in Zabadani and two villages close to Latakia on Wednesday.
“At least two people were killed and 14 people were wounded when rockets fell on March 8 street, near the (Islamic authority) Dar al-Ifta building in the middle of the city”, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
In conclusion to Power’s statement, she proclaimed, “It is long past time for the global community to come together to end the deplorable use of barrel bombs and all other forms of attacks against civilians in Syria”.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power sharply condemned Thursday the Syrian regime’s ongoing indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including barrel bombings.
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Colonel Hassan al-Sheikh was shot dead earlier this week by Sleiman al-Assad, a cousin of President Assad, after a dispute at a checkpoint, the Observatory said.
