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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria's Famed Crusader Fort Hit in Air Raid |
| 2013-07-14 |
| [An Nahar] An air raid on Syria's famed Krak des Chevaliers castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has damaged one of the fortress's towers, footage shot by activists showed Saturday. Several videos posted online showed at least one air strike on Friday against the castle in central Homs province, where fighting is raging between government troops and rebel forces. The footage shows a huge blast as a tower of the Crusader castle, which is built on a hill, appears to take a direct hit, throwing up large clouds of smoke and scattering debris in the air. A separate video filmed inside the fortress purports to show some of the damage caused by the air strike, including a gaping hole in the ceiling and a pile of rubble below. "God is great. This is the destruction caused by MiG air strike on the Krak des Chevaliers," says the activist filming the damage. "Look at the this, oh world. This is Bashir al-Assad bombing the Krak des Chevaliers," he adds of Syria's embattled president whom rebel forces are trying to topple. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group, could not confirm direct hits on the castle, but said there were reports of three air strikes in the area on Friday. The raids came after rebels apparently using the Krak des Chevaliers as a base attacked an Alawite village called Qumayri, killing several people, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse. |
| Posted by:Fred |
#8 Wonderful, did you have to do EXACTLY what they wanted Assad? *shrug* They violated the laws of war; this is their fault, not Assads. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2013-07-14 15:53 |
| #7 The Knights Templar aren't going to give back the cleaning deposit after that... |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2013-07-14 13:35 |
| #6 Monte Cassino Abbey comes to mind. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2013-07-14 11:15 |
| #5 Wonderful, did you have to do EXACTLY what they wanted Assad? We have state of the art gear, and we still flattened any Iraqi antiquities used as firing points by Iraqi insurgents. Relatively-speaking, Assad's using Flintstone-era equipment against the insurgents. He can't let them operate from the fortress with impunity. He doesn't have the technical ability to do surgical strikes. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2013-07-14 10:45 |
| #4 Sooner they get rid of the antiquities, the less reason there is against turning it all into a glassy parking lot. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-07-14 09:18 |
| #3 Wonderful, did you have to do EXACTLY what they wanted Assad? |
| Posted by: Charles 2013-07-14 08:15 |
| #2 The raids came after rebels apparently using the Krak des Chevaliers as a base attacked an Alawite village called Qumayri, killing several people, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse. These Sunni rebels are real pieces of work. Assad really needs to get going with the task of convincing Sunnis to relocate to neighboring states, or Syria will run out of antiquities for these people to destroy. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2013-07-14 08:13 |
| #1 It's OK---it isn't like it was something important (like a mosque). |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-07-14 03:47 |