Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 U.S. NEWS
Monday 13 March 2017

Al-Qaida-linked group claims deadly attack in Syrian capital

BY BASSEM MROUE who fled violence in the
ASSOCIATED PRESS nearby province of Aleppo.
BEIRUT (AP) -- An al-Qaida- The activist group Raqqa is
linked group claimed re- Being Slaughtered Silently
sponsibility Sunday for twin said the airstrike killed 17.
blasts near holy shrines fre- On Thursday, at least 20 ci-
quented by Shiites in the vilians, including some chil-
Syrian capital Damascus dren, were killed in suspect-
that killed at least 40 peo- ed U.S.-coalition airstrikes
ple as a suspected airstrike on a village east of Raqqa.
by the U.S.-led coalition Also Sunday, two Syrian op-
killed at least 17 in northern position figures said the Syr-
Syria, activists said. ian armed opposition will
The Levant Liberation Com- not take part in a meeting
mittee said in a statement planned and sponsored
that the attack was car- by Russia and Turkey in the
ried out by two of its suicide Kazakh capital of Astana
attackers, claiming that on Tuesday, saying the
they targeted pro-Iranian government has not been
and pro-government mi- abiding by a cease-fire.
litiamen. It identified the Ahmad Ramadan told The
suicide attackers as Abu Associated Press via a text
Omar and Abu Aisha. message that rebels will
The Syrian government In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA shows several damaged buses in not go because the Syrian
maintains that the attacks a parking lot at the site of an attack by twin explosions in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, March 11, government and Russia are
killed 40 people. Howev- 2017. Associated Press working on displacing peo-
er the Britain-based Syr- ple from the neighborhood
ian Observatory for Human tive force against Assad linked group said the blasts fices in the central city of of al-Waer, the only rebel-
Rights increased its estimat- and the main defender of were a message to Iran - a Homs, killing and wounding held area in the central city
ed death toll on Sunday the country’s majority Sun- main backer of Assad. scores of people, including of Homs.
to 74. Conflicting casualty nis. “Iran and its militias have, a top Syrian security official. Rebel legal adviser and
estimates are common in Fatah al-Sham is opposed from the start of the revolu- In northern Syria, opposition spokesman Osama Abo
the aftermath of violence to peace talks between tion, supported the tyran- activists said a suspected Zayd wrote on his Twitter
in Syria. the opposition and the nical and criminal regime U.S.-led coalition airstrike account that “the crimes
The attacks in Damascus government that have tak- and have been killing and hit a school in the village of by the regime and Iran, and
show that Syrian militant en place recently in Gene- displacing our people,” the Kasrat just south of the city the shelling and airstrikes of
groups can still strike deep va and the Kazakh capital statement said. “This is a of Raqqa, killing at least 17 Russia and its sponsoring of
inside the capital where of Astana. Fatah al-Sham message to Iran and its mili- people. The airstrike came displacement in al-Waer
security is tight, with scores as well as the Islamic State tias that the right will not go amid an offensive by U.S.- has totally severed the op-
of checkpoints that search group have been excluded wasted.” backed Kurdish-led fighters portunities of our participa-
cars and ask people for from a cease-fire brokered The Levant Liberation Com- against the Islamic State tion in Astana.”
identity cards. by Russia and Turkey that mittee is a coalition of sev- group in the northern prov- The announcement came
The claim of responsibil- went into effect on Dec. 30. eral militant groups domi- ince of Raqqa that is home a day after Syria’s armed
ity comes at a time when Saturday’s attack also nated by Fatah al-Sham. to the extremists’ de facto opposition groups called
al-Qaida’s branch in Syria wounded over a hundred, The attacks came two capital. for postponing the meeting
known as the Fatah al- most of them Iraqis, ac- weeks after members of The Observatory said Sun- in Astana, saying that vio-
Sham Front is trying to mar- cording to Syrian and Iraqi the same group stormed day’s early airstrike killed lations of a Russia-backed
ket itself as the only effec- officials. The al-Qaida- two different security of- 19 people, including eight cease-fire have persisted.q