Syria truce collapses as shelling, clashes resume

Assad's forces renew shelling on major cities, rebels launched several attacks as Eid al-Adha ceasefire all but ends

News agencies |Published: 10.28.12 , 12:27

Syrian fighter jets bombarded suburbs of eastern Damascus on Sunday, continuing the air raids launched on Sunni Muslim neighborhoods in the capital since a UN-brokered ceasefire was supposed to begin two days ago, opposition activists said.

International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's brokered ceasefire, meant to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha religious holiday, was undermined almost immediately.

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Brahimi had hoped to use it to build momentum to end the 19-month-old conflict in which an estimated 32,000 people have been killed.

Syrian state news SANA reported dozens of "ceasefire violations" by rebel groups including a car bomb in front of a Christian church in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor.

There were large explosions and huge plumes of smoke as Russian-made warplanes hit the adjacent suburbs of Zamalka, Irbin, Harasta and Zamalka, opposition sources said Sunday.

A statement by the Harasta Media Office, an activists' organization, said electricity, water and communications had been cut and dozens of wounded at the Harasta National Hospital had been moved as the bombardment closed in.

Activists also reported fighting in the suburb of Douma to the northeast, where Free Syrian Army fighters have been attacking roadblocks

Damascus is ringed by Sunni districts that have played a major role in the 19-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad.

Assad is a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that has dominated majority-Sunni Syria since the 1960s, when Alawite officers assumed control of a military junta that had taken power in a coup.

Syrian forces shot and killed two Hamas leaders in the Deraa refugee camp on Saturday, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported citing Palestinian sources.

The report identified the victims as Ahmad Khalil Khalil and Ahmad al-Kharoubi, and stated that their bodies lay in the street for several hours before being collected by ambulances.