128 dead as Asma Assad supports Homs attacks

Syria

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At least 128 civilians were killed Monday in Syria, mostly in the bombing of the city of Homs and its province, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At least 98 died in the bombing of Homs neighborhoods and nearby town Rastane, Qousseir and Hula.

At least 13 civilians were also killed in the towns of the province of Idleb, 15 in the province of Damascus and in Aleppo province, the source said.

The new offensive by the regime occurred on the eve of a visit to Damascus by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country vetoed Saturday, with China, a UN resolution condemning repression in Syria.

Lavrov denounced the "hysterical and indecent" reaction from the West to the veto, saying that based on the draft the West did not mention the need to distance itself from the "armed extremists". He added Moscow would "do everything possible to achieve rapid stabilization" in Syria and called for "democratic reforms."

The regime has blamed the violence on "terrorist gangs", as it does from the beginning of the protests nearly 11 months ago.

Meanwhile, the wife of Syrian President Asma al-Assad, whose family hails from the city of Homs, expressed her support for her husband for the first time since the uprising began, the British newspaper The Times reported Tuesday. "The president is the president of Syria, not of a faction of the Syrians, and the First Lady supports this role," said Asma al-Assad in an email from her office.