Tumi: Syrian government airstrikes kill at least 25

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 file photo, a Syrian woman stands amid the ruins of her house which was destroyed in an airstrike by government warplanes a few days earlier, killing 11 members of her family, in the neighborhood of Ansari, Aleppo, Syria. President Bashar Assad has exploited his greatest advantage on the battlefield _ his air power _ to push back rebel advances and prevent the opposition from setting up a rival government in its northern stronghold. Along the way, fighter jets and helicopters bombed bakeries, makeshift hospitals and residential areas, according to a new report by a U.S.-based rights group released Thursday, April 11, 2013 accusing the regime of committing war crimes with indiscriminate airstrikes that have killed more than 4000 since summer. (AP Photo/Abdullah al-Yassin, File)

This citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows destroyed homes in a government airstrike and shelling, in the neighborhood of Marjeh in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, April. 11, 2013. A U.S.-based rights group on Thursday accused Syria of war crimes by indiscriminate and sometimes deliberate airstrikes against civilians, killing at least 4,300 people since last summer. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC)

This citizen journalism image taken on Sunday, April 7, 2013 provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian citizens searching for bodies in the rubble of damaged buildings that were attacked by Syrian forces airstrikes, in the al-Ansari neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. More than 70,000 people have died since Syria's crisis erupted in March 2011. The Syria-based Violations Documentation Center says nearly 9,000 government troops have been killed in two years of fighting between President Bashar Assad's forces and rebels trying to topple him. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012 file photo, an elderly Syrian man smokes a cigarette as he stands next to a residential building destroyed in a government airstrike, in Maaret Misreen, near Idlib, Syria. A U.S.-based rights group on Thursday accused Syria of war crimes by indiscriminate and sometimes deliberate airstrikes against civilians, killing at least 4,300 people since last summer. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen, File)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian government warplanes carried out airstrikes on a rebellious neighborhood of the capital as well as a village in the country's northeast Sunday, killing at least 25 people, including 12 children, activists said.

With its ground forces stretched thin, President Bashar Assad's regime has relied heavily on its fighter jets and helicopters to try to stem rebel advances in the country's civil war. The air raids also frequently hit civilian areas, drawing criticism from the international community.

A Human Rights Watch report last week accused the Syrian government of committing war crimes by using indiscriminate and sometimes deliberate airstrikes against civilians, killing at least 4,300 people since the summer.

On Sunday, government jets bombed rebel-held areas in the predominantly Kurdish village of Hadad in the northeastern province of Hassaka, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said at least 16 people were killed, including two women and three children.

A Hassaka-based activist who was in Hadad when the planes struck said the bombs sent huge plumes of black smoke billowing over the town. He spoke on condition that he be identified only by his nickname of Abu Qasem ? by which he is widely known among his comrades ? out of fear of reprisals.

Another airstrike on the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun killed at least nine children, the Observatory said.

The government frequently targets Qaboun, where rebels pushed in early this year. The district has been ravaged by heavy street clashes and shelling since then as the military tries to expel the anti-Assad fighters.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, also reported that four civilians died after being tortured in a jail in the town of Zakyeh. It did not provide any further details.

In the southern city of Daraa, the Syrian army shot and killed a man, the Observatory said.

Rebels have made significant gains in the surrounding province of Daraa in recent weeks, capturing military bases and territory that could provide anti-Assad fighters with a staging ground for an eventual assault on Damascus.

The push in the south has coincided with what Western and Arab official say are U.S.-backed training of opposition fighters in Jordan and an influx of foreign-funded weapons into the south. The rebel advances have given the opposition momentum and put the government on the defensive in the two-year civil war that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 70,000 people.

The fighting has spilled over on several occasions into neighboring states, including Lebanon, Turkey and Israel, stoking fears that those countries could be dragged into the conflict.

On Sunday, two rockets fired from Syria exploded in the Lebanese border village of al-Qasr, killing one person and wounding two, a Lebanese security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

Two more rockets landed a nearby village of Hawsh, but there were no reports of casualties.

There has been heavy fighting near the frontier in recent days as Syrian government troops try to regain control of the strategic area from rebels.

Also Sunday, the main Western-backed opposition bloc expressed concern about the Islamic extremist rebel faction Jabhat al-Nusra's pledge of allegiance to al-Qaida last week.

In a statement, the Syrian National Coalition urged Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the most powerful and effective rebel groups, "to stay within the ranks of nationalistic Syrians, to continue its efforts in fighting the Assad regime, and in supporting and protecting the freedom of all Syrian sects."

Jabhat al-Nusra's pledge of fealty sparked concern that the allegiance to al-Qaida means the group will be beholden to non-Syrian interests.

But the broader rebellion desperately needs the extremist group's fighting skills in its battle to oust Assad. Jabhat al-Nusra itself has sought to ease concerns by saying it remains dedicated to the Syrian uprising's cause of toppling the Assad regime.

In the northern province of Aleppo, three journalists working for state TV were wounded in a car bombing Sunday, the SANA state news agency said. Correspondent Shadi Helweh and two cameramen, Yehia Mosseli and Ahmed Suleiman, were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds, the agency said.

The journalists were reporting on Syrian soldiers who were trying to stop two suicide attackers attempting to detonate a car bomb near a security headquarters in the province. SANA said the two attackers were killed, and the journalists and several other civilians were wounded.

___

AP writers Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-14-Syria/id-3ad4e036ee1b44eea8c390e151076089

denver news frozen planet creighton new smyrna beach st. joseph puerto rico primary manning