REPORT: Syrian rebels disperse food protest with gunfire

 
Syrian rebels fired into the air to disperse a protest by civilians in a rebel-held district of Aleppo against a blockade preventing food and medicine reaching government-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo, residents said on Wednesday.    

Rebel fighters have stopped supplies entering western Aleppo for weeks. The tactic is aimed at weakening the supply routes of President Bashar al-Assad's forces but thousands of civilians are now left hungry, residents say.                 

Video footage posted on the Internet showed dozens of civilians in the rebel-held neighborhood of Bustan al-Qasr protesting at a rebel checkpoint which prevents supplies from entering the western part of the city, home to 2 million people and held by the army.           

Although insurgents and the army control different parts of the country, civilians are normally allowed to cross freely to shop or meet family members and friends.     

An opposition activist group called the Aleppo Martyrs said rebels fired at the protesters, killing one person and wounding several others. But a resident at the protest said the man was killed prior to the protest by army sniper fire as he tried the cross between rebel and government-held territory.   

Reuters was not able to confirm the report due to media and security restrictions in Syria.         

Rebels who now control many parts of the country are blamed for similar abuses by rights groups, including torture and harsh punishments imposed by religious courts. 

Residents in western Aleppo say food prices have jumped to more than ten times their original level and basics such as bread and flour have become harder to find.                

Civilians say they are stockpiling food, such as bulgur wheat and rice, which are still regularly available. They say some perishable vegetables are still being sold in markets.            

More than 100,000 people have died in Syria's two-year conflict. It started because Assad's force fired live ammunition against pro-democracy protests, leading to an armed revolt.              

On another note, Russia's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday that Russian experts determined that Syrian rebels made sarin nerve gas and used it in a deadly chemical weapon attack outside Aleppo in March.         

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin blamed opposition fighters for the March 19 attack in the government-controlled Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Assal, which he said killed 26 people, including 16 military personnel, and injured 86 others.     

The rebels have blamed the government for the attack. The US, Britain and France have said they have seen no evidence to indicate that the opposition has acquired or used chemical weapons.               

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney said "We have yet to see any evidence that backs up the assertion that anybody besides the Syrian government has had the ability to use chemical weapons or has used chemical weapons."           

Churkin told reporters after delivering an 80-page report to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the Assad regime asked Russia, its closest ally, to investigate the attack after a UN team of chemical weapons experts was unable to enter the country in a dispute over the probe's scope.


REUTERS/AP


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