Syrian Sources Deny Bombardment Claims, Obama Condemns Al-Assad

Saturday 4 February 2012

Syrian Sources Deny Bombardment Claims, Obama Condemns Al-Assad

Syrian News Agency SANA denied Saturday media reports that the army bombarded spontaneous targets in Homs killing hundreds of innocent civilians.

The news agency clarified that these claims were part of the “ongoing distortion, falsification and instigation media campaigns by some satellites” in order to “cover the crimes and aggressions of the armed terrorist groups in Syria”.

Quoting an unnamed Syrian Information source, SANA further stated that “TV Satellites of instigation, partners with the armed terrorist groups and the so-called Istanbul council, have been launching a hysterical campaign of provocation and incitement for the shedding of more Syrian blood, as to influence the stances of some countries at the UN Security Council.''

Media had published Saturday reports and images of corpses, indicating that the Syrian army has committed a “massacre” among “protestors” in the city of Homs.
Noting that these images where actually for “innocent citizens kidnapped, tortured and slaughtered by the armed terrorist groups,” SANA pointed out that “the corpses, in fetters, bear signs of torture and organized killing with no signs of artillery or mortar shells.”

Some Syrian citizens also contacted state channels such as the Syrian TV reassuring that “the corpses images aired by Satellites were in fact for their relatives who were kidnapped earlier by armed terrorist groups.”

Speaking to the Syrian television, one citizen said that “over 300 gunmen with their weapons were operating last night in the area, as RPG missiles poured on the quarter causing 5 houses to burn completely.”

In the same context, US President Barack Obama came out Saturday to accuse Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's government of murdering civilians in what he referred to as an “unspeakable assault" in the city o

f Homs.

"Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately," Obama said in a condemnation statement published by AFP.

Continuing the worldwide campaign against Al-Assad, the US president claimed that "yesterday the Syrian government murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children, in Homs through shelling and other indiscriminate violence, and Syrian forces continue to prevent hundreds of injured civilians from seeking medical help.”

"I strongly condemn the Syrian government's unspeakable assault against the people of Homs and I offer my deepest sympathy to those who have lost loved ones," the statement added, indicating that “the UN Security Council has now an opportunity to stand against the Al-Assad regime's relentless brutality.”