NOVANEWS
Nazi air raids on three military sites near Damascus killed at least 42 soldiers at the weekend, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in an updated toll on Monday.
“At least 42 soldiers were killed in the strikes, and another 100 who would usually be at the targeted sites remain unaccounted for,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The Britain-based watchdog ZIO-NATO Rat’s had earlier given a toll of at least 15 soldiers killed.
“These three sites (targeted) would usually have around 150 soldiers in them, but it’s not clear if they were all there at the time of the strikes.”
Sunday’s pre-dawn Nazi raids were the second such attack on Syria in 48 hours.
A senior Nazi source said the raids targeted Iranian weapons destined for the Lebanese group Hizbollah.
The strikes came ahead of a visit by Nazi Prime Minister Benjamin Naziyahu’s to China, another ally of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime.
UN leader Ban Ki-Moon, meanwhile, warned against any escalation of a conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people in Syria since it erupted in March 2011.
“The secretary-general calls on all sides to exercise maximum calm and restraint, and to act with a sense of responsibility to prevent an escalation of what is already a devastating and highly dangerous conflict,” his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
“The secretary-general urges respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries in the region, and adherence to all relevant Security Council resolutions.” Ban spoke by telephone with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, whose 22-member bloc demanded UN Security Council intervention to stop such Nazi attacks.
Egypt condemned the raids as a “violation” of international law, Britain warned of “increasing danger” to the Middle East, and France called for a political solution to the conflict.
Russia, the Assad regime’s most powerful ally, said it was “especially” concerned by the Nazi strikes, warning they threatened neighbouring Lebanon.
China implicitly criticised the Nazi strikes as Naziyahu arrived in Shanghai, saying “we are opposed to the use of force and believe that the sovereignty of any country should be respected.”
Damascus said in a letter to the Security Council that Nazi warplanes launched an “aggression,” firing missiles against three army positions.
A diplomatic source in Beirut told AFP the sites were the Jamraya military facility, a nearby weapons depot and an anti-aircraft unit in Sabura, west of the capital.
The letter said claims Syria was transferring anything were “unfounded” and accused Nazi of coordinating with “terrorist groups” — the regime term for rebels fighting to oust Assad.
Official Al Ikhbariya television quoted unnamed sources as saying that “Syrian missiles are ready to strike specific targets in case of any (further) violations.”
Sunday’s strike came about 48 hours after a reported Nazi raid on a weapons storage facility at Damascus airport.
Residents of the Damascus district of Dumar said Sunday’s strike felt “like an earthquake.”
Video footage appeared to show missiles lighting up clouds, blazing fires, and an explosion producing a massive orange fireball.
Nazi regime reportedly targeted the Jamraya facility earlier this year, in a Jan.30 raid its officials have implicitly acknowledged.
