Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad have sent children into combat and used boys as young as 14 to transport weapons and supplies, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
The New York-based group said it had interviewed five boys aged between 14 and 16 who said they worked with rebels in the southern province of Deraa, the central Homs region and on the northern border with Turkey.
Three of them, all aged 16, said they carried weapons and one said he participated in attack missions. Two others, aged 14 and 15, said they supported fighter brigades by conducting reconnaissance or transporting weapons and supplies.
The International Criminal Court says that conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 or using them to participate in hostilities is a war crime. The United Nations convention on child rights urges states to ensure that people under 18 are not recruited or used in hostilities.
"All eyes are on the Syrian opposition to prove they're trying to protect children from bullets and bombs, rather than placing them in danger," said Priyanka Motaparthy, children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
She urged rebel commanders "to make a strong, public commitment against use of children in their forces, and to verify boys' ages before allowing them to enlist."
A 16-year-old boy from the Khalidiyeh district of Homs city told HRW he participated in combat missions.
On the field:
Syria's minister of information said that "terrorists", not the state, were responsible for a countrywide Internet outage on Thursday, a pro-government TV station said.
"It is not true that the state cut the Internet. The terrorists targeted the Internet lines, resulting in some regions being cut off," he was quoted by al-Ikhbariya as saying.
State TV quoted the telecommunications minister as saying that engineers were working to repair what he said was a fault in the main communications and Internet cable.
The ministry also announced on Thursday evening that he road leading to Damascus International Airport is “safe” again after the intervention of the regime forces.
Earlier, a rebel fighter reported that Syrian rebel fighters fired mortars at the runways of Damascus international airport on Thursday and are blocking the road leading to the capital.
The account by a Jund Allah brigade fighter, who uses the name Abu Omar, could not be immediately verified. Speaking by telephone, he told Reuters his fighters were not inside the airport but were able to block access in and out of it.
Abu Omar, who said he was with fighters from Jund Allah and two other Islamist brigades close to the airport, said the mortar fire had damaged the runways.
"No one can come in or out of the airport," he added.
Activists earlier said the airport road had been closed by fighting.
A spokesman for the rebel military council in Damascus, Moataz al-Qanawati, said he had no information about attacks on the airport but that insurgents in the area "have the capability of striking the airport".
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in Syria, said there had been clashes on the airport road but that rebels were not close to the airport itself.
In this context, two Austrian peacekeeping soldiers were wounded on Thursday when their convoy came under fire near the airport in the Syrian capital of Damascus, the defence ministry in Vienna said.
"The Austrian U.N. soldiers in the convoy and the two injured are already in safety at the airport in Damascus," a ministry statement said, adding that the injuries were not life threatening. (Austrian soldiers serve with the U.N. peacekeeping force on the Golan Heights, disputed by Syria and Israel).
This after Syrian rebels bombed the house of a top member of the country's ruling Baath party in the south on Thursday, killing him and his three body guards, activists said.
The bombing took place in Daraa, where the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. Since then, rebels have targeted regime figures and military commanders in the capital, Damascus, and in other places around the country.
The increasing frequency of bombings, a hallmark of Islamic extremists like al-Qaida, has led to concerns about the growing role of Islamist militants in the civil war.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that 15 people, including 5 children, were killed and 20 others were injured during an air strike in the city of Aleppo, northern Syria.
Early Thursday, rebels detonated a car bomb near the house of Hussein Rifai in Daraa, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, killing Rifai and his bodyguards. The Observatory relies on reports from activists on the ground.
Syria state-run SANA news agency reported the bombing in Daraa. It said there were casualties in the blast, but did not say if Rafai was among those killed.
The bombing in Daraa came a day after twin suicide car bombs ripped through a Damascus suburb minutes apart, killing at least 34 people and wounding more than 80 others.
Damascus, the seat of Assad's power, has been the scene of scores of car bombs and mortar attacks targeting state security institutions and troops, areas with homes of wealthy Syrians, army officers, security officials and other members of the regime.
Meanwhile violent clashes
erupted Thursday dawn between regime forces and opposition fighter around the
proximity of Wadi Daif area, East of Maaret Numan in Reep Aleppo.
The British based Observatory said that a number of opposition “battalions”
are now surrounding the pro-regime area and are attempting to storm it amid a
heavy exchange of fire between the two groups.
This as fighting on the outskirts of the Amariyya and Salaheddine neighborhood
rages between opposing forces.
In Aleppo Reef, the opposition force that was able to capture
the area threatened to cut-off all power if regime forces continue their
advancement.
This as clashes in Damascus erupted Wednesday overnight and continued until
the early hours of the morning in the Hajjar Aswad neighborhood and Yarmouk
camp.
Syrian fighter jets were also seen flying over several areas east of
the Damascus Reef.
International Positions:
UN Special Envoy to Syria Lakhbar Brahimi said after meeting with the 15 members of the UN Security Council said that "a 'new Syria' will born from this ongoing conflict between Assad’s regime and the rebels", alluding that "President Bashar Al Assad will resign in the end."
Earlier, EgyptAir has cancelled its Friday flight to Damascus due to the "deteriorating situation" around the airport in the Syrian capital, a Cairo airport official said on Thursday.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the airline would hold an urgent meeting in the next few hours with Egyptian officials to discuss halting all flights between Egypt and Syria.
Dubai's Emirates has also suspended its flights to and from Damascus until further notice, the airline said in a statement on its website.
The carrier said its two daily flights to Syria were suspended with immediate effect. No reason was given for the suspension but the airline said the safety of passengers and crew was its priority.
Separately, Spanish government recognized the new Syrian opposition Coalition as a “legitimate representative of the Syrian people”. Ahamd Moaz, the coalition’s president was also invited to visit Spain.
LBCI/REUTERS/AP