Syrian missiles kill at least 141 in Aleppo

At least 141 people, half of them children, were killed when the Syrian military fired at least four missiles into the northern province of Aleppo last week, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.         

The international rights group said the strikes hit residential areas and called them an "escalation of unlawful attacks against Syria's civilian population." The statement from the New York-based group followed a visit to the area by a HRW researcher.                                  

Aleppo, Syria's largest city has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the civil war pitting President Bashar Assad's regime against rebels bent on ousting him.                                

A Human Rights Watch researcher, who visited Aleppo last week to inspect the targeted sites, said up to 20 buildings were destroyed in each area hit by a missile. There were no signs of any military targets in the residential districts located in rebel-held parts of Aleppo and its northern countryside, said Ole Solvang, the HRW's researcher.       

Human rights watch said 71 children were among the 141 people killed in the four missile strikes on three opposition-controlled neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo. It listed the names of the targeted neighborhoods as Jabal Badro, Tariq al-Bab and Ard al-Hamra. The fourth strike documented by the group was in Tel Rifat, north of Aleppo.          

This as, US and NATO officials have previously said that Syria has a significant ballistic missile capability and is believed to have a few hundred missiles with a range of some 700 kilometers (440 miles) that could hit targets deep inside Turkey, a NATO member and one of the harshest critics of the Assad regime.                

NATO has in recent weeks deployed Patriot missile systems along Turkey's border with Syria.                        

The missile attacks have outraged the leaders of the exiled opposition who have accused their Western backers of indifference to the suffering of the Syrian people.                       

On another note, the Syrian state news agency and anti-regime activists have reported violence near a landmark, historic mosque in the northern city of Aleppo.     

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels were clashing with government forces near the Umayyad Mosque amid intense gunfire and explosions.        

The 12th century house of worship, also known as the Great Mosque of Aleppo, sits near a medieval covered market in Aleppo's walled city, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The mosque was heavily damaged in October, 2012, and a fire torched the market the month before.                      

It is worth noting that the U.N. said that some 70,000 have been killed since Syria's conflict began in March 2011.                    


POSITIONS:  

Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov condemned “extremists” in Syria's opposition for blocking the start of dialogue to end the months-long conflict in the Arab country.               

Lavrov stressed that the Russians cannot solve the issue on the behalf of the Syrians, noting that “his concerns have increased following his contacts with other foreign countries.”                          

The Syrian crisis will be the main item during the discussions expected to be held between Lavrov and his American counterpart John Kerry on Tuesday afternoon in Berlin.         

For his part the Syrian Industry Ministry issued a report whereby it estimated the direct and indirect losses sustained by this sector to be worth 40.5 billion Syrian pounds (420 million US dollars).


LBCI/AP/REUTERS