“In a desperate attempt to crush the uprising, Syrian forces have executed people in cold blood, civilians and opposition fighters alike. They are doing it in broad daylight and in front of witnesses, evidently not concerned about any accountability for their crimes.” - Human Rights Watch

According to this report, over 100 civilians have been killed by Syrian security forces. 

Click here to read the whole article. 

(AP Photo)

Human Rights Watch recently released a report based off of 58 interviews done in detention centers in Afghanistan. Approximately 400 women are imprisoned there for ‘moral crimes’ - in other words, fleeing forced or abusive marriages or sex outside of marriage due to rape.  

Interviews were conducted in three juvenile detention centers and three prisons. It was found that almost every girl in the juvenile centers were there for ‘moral crimes’ while around half in prison were there for the same. 

Human Rights Watch claims the report sheds light on the future of women’s rights in a country where the international community less and less present. Although the fall of the Taliban in 2001 saw progress, the issue still has a long way to being solved. 

Click the link at the bottom of this post to get more details from the Human Rights Watch website. 

(Photo: Copyright by Farzana Wahidy) 

LINK to Human Rights Watch

News outlets such as CNN and Newser reported a massacre in Syria late yesterday that left 45 or more women and children dead. The killings in the city of Homs were perpetrated by government forces, according to opposition activist groups called the Syrian Revolution Council and the Local Coordination Committees of Syria. The latter was quoted by CNN as declaring it a “massacre orchestrated by the regime.”

The government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has been brutally cracking down on opposition protest since the Arab Spring began last February, and recently an organized opposition has formed. A large base of that opposition is reportedly in the town of Homs where this latest massacre has taken place.

These tragic events occurred the same day that UN special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, said he was “optimistic” about conditions in the country.

In their article, CNN reported that they could not “independently confirm reports of casualties or attacks in Syria because the government has severely restricted the access of international journalists.”

(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

ARTICLE LINK

More tragedy in Syria so far this week as the Homs attack continues, western journalists were killed, and 27 young men in towns to the north were killed yesterday during government raids by President Assad’s regime.

Reuters reported that today, 19 more people were killed in the town of Homs as artillery shelling of the town by security forces continues. The violence there has been continuous since February 3rd, according to Reuters.

Of the 19 people killed, two were western journalists: Marie Colvin from the United States (writing for Britian’s The Sunday Times) and Remi Ochlik, a photographer from France.

Newser.com cited a human rights group reporting that during a raid on three villages in the northern province of Idlib, President Assad’s security forces shot 27 young men to death.

The international community continued urging Syria to end the harrowing violence against its people, and according to news media outlets, hinted at arming the rebels or some other form of direct aid. Even so, a spokesperson for the US State Department said that political strategies were still the main focus.

The Guardian reported this morning that tanks have surrounded the Syrian town of Homs. A hotbed for rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the town has been under bombardment for several days straight. Hundreds of civilians, many of them women and children, have been wounded and killed during the attack.

A resident of Homs told the Guardian, “Communications have been completely cut off between neighborhoods. The army have blocked access to the city. Some people tried to escape but they found all the roads were closed. There is no food left in the city. We don’t have milk. All the water tanks have been targeted. We don’t have medicines. If you go to the shops and try to get in, the snipers up on the roofs will shoot you.”

Hospitals in the area have been taken over by the Syrian military, and residential homes have been converted into medical stations for the wounded, according to several news outlets.

The Guardian reported that Syrian security forces blocked off the roads to the area, making it impossible to evacuate children, the sick and wounded, and to bring in much needed provisions. The violence continues on as the UN struggles to find a way to take action. Almost a week ago, Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution against the Syrian crackdown.

LINK

(Image from amateur video, shown on Shaam News Network. Reportedly showing a Syrian military tank in the town of Homs)

The BBC reported this morning that Syrian troops have resumed heavy shelling of the city of Homs. In a continuation of their crackdown on protesters, the death toll in the latest attack is so far placed at 50 according to Reuters. A spokesperson of the Syrian National Council told Reuters that many of the dead were civilians.

In the BBC article, it was reported that only one field hospital remained in the city and only four doctors were on hand.

On Saturday during a UN resolution vote against the violence, Russia and China vetoed the measure. This development will make it harder for the international community to put an end to the crisis, and Syrian opposition forces have told the BBC that it will make the regime even more deadly.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the veto a “travesty,” repoted the BBC.

LINK

(AP Photo/Local Coordination Committees in Syria)

According to activists in Syria, 217 people were killed tonight from a government attack during protests. The tank and machine gun attack - mostly in and around the town of Homs - occurred the evening before the UN security council votes on whether to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

The Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights dealt directly with witnesses. The Guardian reports that the head of the group told them women and children were among those killed.

A CBS report mentions that youth as young as 13 have been detained under deplorable conditions, tortured and abused, and other children shot in their homes and in the streets. These reports came from the group Human Rights Watch.

Link to the Guardian story

Link to the CBS story

(Photo from CBS News/ Photo of Syrian president, Bashar al- Assad)

benad36:

Yesterday, the Arab League’s mission to Syria was suspended by the Arab League as the violence in the country worsened. The justification for doing so is allegedly because of the increasing violence.

The head of the Arab League, Nabil el-Araby, said: ”Given the critical deterioration…

SYRIA - According to CNN, five people were killed and nine others wounded today when Syrian security forces indiscriminately fired upon on a line of people outside a bakery. The attack took place in the city of Homs, and was reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The same article mentions a raid on university student housing in Aleppo earlier, where nine students have been arrested.

LINK

(Photo: Getty Images)