Below is a release from the LCC regarding the eye-witness accounts they received about the events that occurred in Rastan, Homs Province during the 5 day siege. Arbitrary shelling and bombing of the entire town, torture, use of human shields and detention are just some of the highlights of the terrible war this regime is waging against its own population.
Testimony from Rastan: War, martyrs, siege and anti-human crimes
Communications
returned for a few minutes to the town so he hurried to tell the news,
facts and crimes that he witnessed the regime carry out in his little
town over the last week. Crimes which he and his family witnessed, and
told about to the Local Coordinating Committees by the words he managed
to find.
The Syrian army shelling of the town did not spare
any street or school. They even helped the shabiha to exhume bodies of
martyrs from their graves and stole many of them. One of the bodies that
they exhumed and kidnapped is that of martyr Ahmad Khalaf. They also
arrested his father.
More than 60 people were killed, among whom are 3
women. I do not know the exact number of children who were killed, but I
can confidently say that the rumour about killing 20 children is not
true.
More than 3000 people were detained; most of
them were imprisoned in the cement factory which was turned into one of
the largest prisons, in addition to schools. I could not estimate the
number of prisoners who were tortured but there are many of them. I know
that they beat the detainees in an unprecedented brutal way using
mainly the soles of their rifles. They aimed at the wounds of wounded
detainees in their beating and torturing which eventually led to the
death of many of them.
They detained Yahya Qasim Al-Ashtar after he was
wounded by 2 shrapnels in his back from the nail bombs used to bombard
the town. They also detained Munawwar Hussain Al-Ashtar (15 year-old)
despite the injury in his head, and Hareb Hussain Al-Ashtar (25
year-old) and their uncle Musleh Qasim Al-Ashtar. Most of the injuries
were in the head and abdomen. There was more than 25 wounded in
Al-Ashtar family only, let alone the other families.
Rastan is now living under extremely difficult human
circumstances, and there is much need for all kinds of aid, as the town
has been without bread or babies' milk for more than 5 days; water and
communications is also still cut off.
In addition to the siege of the town,
shabiha and security forces broke into the pharmacies and the military
institution, and raided all the commercial offices in Karaj street in
the town center.
They stormed the field hospital and stole all the
devices from one of the houses that we tuned into a small hospital in
which we put some of the wounded for treatment, before they burnt it
down with the wounded still alive inside it. This happened in front of
my eyes.
The number of defected soldiers who defended the
town was more than 250 soldier, reinforced by a number of soldiers who
came from other areas to join in. They managed to hold at bay the brutal
attack of the army on the town. Huge military reinforcements arrived
later, one of these reinforcements was a military battalion the members
of which were wearing wearing masks to hide their faces! They were very
ruthless and professionals. They were different from the army. They
killed people violently and brutally, in a different way to the army and
indiscriminately. They used women and children as human shields to
protect themselves from the fire of the defected soldiers. This way they
could advance into the town and the Free Army had to withdraw back.
Many army members including soldiers and officers
were executed after they refused to shoot at civilians or tried to
defect. The army used hundreds of tanks and rocket launchers in its war
to invade the town. I saw the tanks and rocket lanchers with my own
eyes, they were positioned at the eastern part of Rastan. Even military
fighters were used in this battle.
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