Massacre in Hama and Poisonous gases used in Homs

A new massacre in Hama perpetrated by the forces of Bashar al-Asad in which a bakery in Hilfaya, Hama was bombed, killing 94 civilians.

This large number of victims raised the number of those killed on Sunday 23/12/2012 to over 216, almost half in Hama, and among them 17 children and four women in addition to two who died under torture and a foetus that died in his mother’s womb when his mother died due to shelling on the village of Atman in Daraa.

In Damascus, the Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) of 51 civilians due to shelling by war planes. In Aleppo, 32 were killed, a third due to the explosive barrels that were released by the planes of the Syrian regime on the city of Al-Sfeerah in which 12 were killed, the majority of them children from the same family. In Homs, 14 were killed after poisonous gases were dropped on al-Khalidiah and al-Bayadiah.

SHRC strongly condemns the massacre in Hilfaya and the bombing of the bakery there, as well as the killing of such a large number of civilians who were standing in line waiting to buy bread with which to abate their hunger. SHRC considers deliberate targeting of civilians a war crime, genocide, and following of the “scorched earth” policy.

SHRC also condemns the use of poisonous and internationally forbidden gases by the Syrian regime in al-Khalidiah in Homs, and calls upon the international community, which viewed the use of chemical weapons as a “red line” to take the necessary measures to stop the massacres, shelling, burnings, disappearances and killings in Syria. This is in addition to holding Bashar al-Asad and his regime responsible for what is happening and try them at the international courts.

Numbers killed in each province:
Hama: 106, 94 of whom were killed in the Hilfaya bakery massacre
Damascus and its suburbs: 51, amongst them two women and a child
Aleppo: 32, amongst them 10 children and a woman
Homs: 14, amongst them a child
Daraa: 6, amongst them 2 children and a woman
Deir Ezzor: 2
Ar-Raqqah: 3 amongst them a child
Lattakia: 1
Idlib: 1
Total: 216

Syrian Human Rights Committee
23/12/2012