Human Rights Watch condemn death of children and civilians as regime's jets bombard strategic border town
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Azaz, Martin Chulov in Antakya and Mona Mahmood
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 16 August 2012 19.54 BST Artical history
People in Azaz were left searching for loved ones – including children and babies – amid the rubble. Photograph: EPA
A heavy stench of death filled the air as a body was pulled from the ruins. Children lifted boulders to reveal bits of flesh and bone. Survivors stood weeping in the wreckage of their houses.
At least 40 people are thought to have been killed when government jets bombarded the provincial town of Azaz on Wednesday. Yesterday, the full scale of the carnage became clear as journalists and human rights monitors reached the scene close to the Turkish border.
Local people estimated that around 64 homes had been damaged or destroyed by the airstrike. Standing on a pile of concrete where his home once stood, Ahmad al-Aboud, 57, said he didn't hear a plane approaching. "There was a big explosion like an earthquake. We're all poor workers' families. We don't even have a gun in this area," he told the Guardian.
Another survivor told researchers from Human Rights Watch (HRW) that he had seen his house destroyed with most of his extended family inside. "I buried 12 of my family members today, including my father, my mother, and my sister – my brother's wife as well. Walid, my brother, was cut into pieces. We didn't recognise him at first. We buried my brother's children also. The youngest was 40 days old," he said.
Most of the seriously injured have been taken to Turkey through a nearby border crossing that has been commandeered by the Free Syria Army. The crossing is also increasingly being used as a supply line into northern Syria, where a buffer zone had been established in all but name before Wednesday's regime attack.
"This horrific attack killed and wounded scores of civilians and destroyed a whole residential block," said Anna Neistat, HRW's acting emergencies director. "Yet again, Syrian government forces attacked with callous disregard for civilian life." HRW said two nearby rebel facilities in the vicinity – an FSA brigade headquarters, and a prison where government fighters were held – might have been targets of the jets.
As the people of Azaz counted their dead, a diplomatic solution seemed less likely than ever. Officials in New York said the UN security council would end its observer mission in Syria.
Before a security council meeting in New York on Friday, France and Russia both said the UN body would not renew the mandate of its much criticised four-month mission, which has been unable to stem the violence in Syria and has led to the resignation of its former chief, Kofi Annan.
Friday's meeting is also due to discuss the Syrian regime's increased use of its air force over the past month, especially in the battle for Aleppo and its surrounds, where rebel forces are unable to combat the use of fast jets repeatedly dropping heavy bombs.
People in the town are linking the airstrike to the kidnapping of a group of Lebanese Shia pilgrims in the area in May, according to one local person. The Lebaneses' whereabouts has been the subject of much interest in their homeland. A splinter group from the Free Syria Army claims to be holding the men and alleges that some are linked to the Lebanese militia and political bloc, Hezbollah.
"They were abducted by a gang named Ammar Dadikhi who claimed to be part of the FSA," said Abu Yousif, contacted by Skype. "They are not FSA – they are based at the mountain and they have even kidnapped FSA members and civilians from Azaz. Azaz has nothing to do them, these gangsters are kidnapping people for money. I can assure they [the Lebanese] are not in Azaz and they [the kidnappers] do not represent the people of Azaz. All the people of Azaz have denounced the kidnapping of these Lebanese. Our main motive is to get our freedom and change the regime. We do not want to abduct or kill anyone."
Azaz is part of a swath of north-western Syria that is under effective rebel control after an assault launched by rebel forces in mid-July. Syrian troops have been absent from the area since they were ousted in days of fighting that coincided with the rebel assault on Syria's second city, Aleppo.
The regime has massed large numbers of tanks and infantry on Aleppo's southern outskirts, but has so far not sent them into the city, preferring to shell from afar with tanks and artillery and use its fighter jets to bomb key targets.
A bakery in Aleppo was hit by a shell early on Thursday , killing an estimated 18 people, witnesses said. Rights groups said more than 150 people had been killed in Syria throughout the day. Daily death tolls, including those of regime troops, have been consistently higher in the past month than at any time since the uprising began in March 2011.
Key rebel towns, including al-Bab on the north-eastern edge of Aleppo, were also bombed by jets on Thursday . The bombing seemed aimed at re-establishing regime power over a strategically crucial area, which is now being used as one of three nationwide hubs of the uprising.
Syrian forces remain battle deployed in most of the country's key cities. Though weakened by defections and desertions, they still outgun and outman the rebel army, which is plagued by leadership problems but has shown an increasing ability to hold key ground.
There were conflicting reports about the welfare of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's brother, Maher al-Assad, who controls a key army division. Two officials told Reuters that Maher had lost a leg in the explosion in Damascus that killed regime security tsar, Assef Shawkat. However, the Guardian could not conform the report.
In Damascus the UN's humanitarian chief, Lady Amos, said: "All parties must do more to protect civilians."
France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said in Jordan that Assad was "butchering his own people and the sooner he goes the better".
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