BEIRUT - Syrian warplanes and ground forces bombarded rebel-held neighborhoods in Homs on Saturday as part of the military’s ongoing campaign against opposition fighters in the heart of the country’s third-largest city, activists said.
The army of President Bashar Assad has been on the offensive in recent weeks, reclaiming some of the territory it has lost to the rebels in the past year.
The military, building on its capture of the strategic town of Qusair between the Lebanese border and Homs at the beginning of this month, has overrun a number of villages nearby. It also has hammered the center of the city, a rebel stronghold since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said airstrikes hit two districts in the center of the city. It said the army also fired mortar shells into the neighborhoods.
An activist from one of those neighborhoods, Khaldiya, said tanks also were involved in the bombardment and the military was trying to push into the area from all sides.
Shelling has been continuous since 10 a.m. in that area and in nearby Old Homs, activist Tariq Bardakhan said via Skype.
“Today is one of the most violent days that Homs has witnessed since the beginning of the revolution,” he said.
In an activists’ video of the bombardment, several large explosions can be heard as plumes of gray smoke rise from buildings in a densely built-up area of the city.
The narrator of the video says: “These are heavy explosions that hit Homs, God is great.” Another shell lands and smoke can be seen rising from behind a mosque. Two minarets are seen in the distance, and the narrator says they belong to the historic Khalid Ibn al-Walid mosque in Khaldiya.
The video was posted on the Internet on Saturday and appears consistent with reporting from the area.
The Observatory confirmed clashes around the mosque and said part of the building, which dates back to the 13th century and has been damaged in previous fighting, was engulfed in flames.
The Observatory said both sides have sustained casualties, but did not have numbers.
Syrian state TV said the army has had “great success” in the battle for Homs after “killing many terrorists in the Khaldiya district.”
Syrian state media refer to rebels fighting to oust Assadfrom power as “terrorists” and say they are mercenaries of the West and their Gulf Arab allies who are conspiring against Damascus.
The Observatory said more than 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict since it began as peaceful protests against the Assad regime more than two years ago. It became an armed rebellion after the opposition supporters took up arms to fight the government crackdown.
The military has gained momentum after capturing Qusair earlier this month with the help of fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, capturing villages on the roads linking the capital to the border area with Jordan and Lebanon.
The rebels have also claimed some victories, marking a successful end to a twoweek battle in the south Friday by capturing an army checkpoint in the city of Daraa, the provincial capital of the region that carries the same name.
Daraa is the birthplace of the uprising against Assad, and rebels hope to one day launch an offensive from the area to take the capital.
The Observatory reported heavy fighting around the province Saturday with clashes between the rebels and army troops concentrated in the town of Jassem after the army brought reinforcements.
Also on Saturday, three German aid workers’ employer said they have been missing in Syria for 45 days and were likely kidnapped.
Gruenhelme e.V. said Bernd Blechschmidt, Ziad Nouri and Simon S., whose last name wasn’t provided, were taken by unknown persons from the town of Harem in Idlib district May 14.
The group’s founder, Rupert Neudeck, said a fourth staff member managed to avoid capture and is safe. The kidnapping was kept secret for more than a month so as not to jeopardize the men’s safety, but all efforts to determine who they are being held by were unsuccessful, he said.
“We’re totally in the dark,” Neudeck said in a telephone interview. “If the kidnappers wanted a ransom, we would have expected to be contacted by now.”
German news website Spiegel Online reported that the aid group has been working in northern Syria since September 2012.
Gruenhelme e.V., whose name means ‘Green Helmets’ in German, specializes in reconstructing schools and medical facilities in crisis regions. It has previously sent staff to work in Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia.
Information for this article was contributed by Yasmin Saker and staff members of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 10 on 06/30/2013