Top Stories

• Revolutionaries in Homs captured five Iranian soldiers belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, al-Quds brigade.

• Death toll reached 62 today, including 11 children, 32 were from Homs alone.

• The regime pushed up the prices of liquid gas used for heating by 60%, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the country.

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• Karm Zaitoun, Homs: Assad’s forces commit another horrible massacre against innocent civilians where many children, women and elderly were murdered, P2, P3

• Homs: Al-Farouq battalion capture personnel from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and present evidence of their participation in the crackdown against protesters

• Nawa, Daraa: Assad’s forces open fire at civilians killing a child

Summary of Events

The revolutionaries in Homs belonging to the Farouq Brigade announced that seven Iranians were captured; five of them were members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard including one officer. These five armed men were snipers working under the supervision of the Air Force intelligence branch in Homs. The other two were civilians working in Jandar Electrical Station and will be freed soon. The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that eleven Iranians were kidnapped while on their way to visit holy shrines in Damascus. However, in a recorded confession the prisoners confirmed they were on an official mission by the Iranian Army and showed their IDs. The officer in charge of the group said he was sent to support the security forces in Syria in suppressing demonstrators. The officer confessed to participating in killing and torturing many civilians, including women and children in Homs. The Iranian officer who belongs to the Quds Brigade pleaded Khamenai to withdraw all Iranian forces from Syria so that he could go home.

Security forces killed at least 62 today, including 11 children; most of them fell in Homs. The regime committed another massacre in the neighbourhood of Karm Zaytoun by shelling houses with heavy artillery killing and burying entire families under the rubble, and by dispatching militiamen who slaughtered women and children with knives. The situation was not different in the suburbs of Homs, as the regime shelled Qasir, Taldo and Houleh with heavy artillery and tanks. The massacres caused an uprising in the city which led to the rebels destroying 9 armoured units and killing dozens of Assad’s militiamen. They also attacked the Military Intelligence building and freed over a hundred prisoners and took over many weapons.

The regime’s military campaigns continued against the city of Hama, as more reinforcements of tanks and armoured units were brought into the city of Sqelbiya in Sahl Ghab. The Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus are also under a military campaign by the regime, as the Fourth Regiment attacked it with thousands of soldiers and more than a hundred tanks.

Economically, the regime pushed up the prices of liquid gas by 60%, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the country as civilians use liquid gas for heating. Liquid gas is running out as the regime has been draining the reserves to fuel its tanks and armoured units.