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Ahrar a-Sham strikes Latakia city with rockets

AMMAN: Ahrar a-Sham struck the coastal city of Latakia with […]


11 November 2015

AMMAN: Ahrar a-Sham struck the coastal city of Latakia with two rockets that realized “direct hits,” a spokesman told Syria Direct Wednesday, as pro-opposition and pro-regime media remain divided over the casualties.

“We carried out direct, confirmed hits on security sites with dozens of rockets,” Ali al-Hafawi, a spokesman for Ahrar a-Sham on the Coast, told Syria Direct Wednesday, denying that the militia targeted civilians. “The regime always tries to spin it that way.”

State-run SANA offered a different account, reporting Tuesday that the rockets fell on residential areas, killing 23 civilians and wounding 50.

A funeral in Latakia Wednesday for those killed in Ahrar a-Sham rocket attacks. Photo courtesy of Lattakia News Network.

While one rocket landed in empty agricultural land, the second hit the city’s security square, which contains the State Security building, the Air Force Intelligence branch and the Second Conscription branch, according to an Ahrar a-Sham announcement on Tuesday.

A civilian who spoke to Syria Direct from Latakia Wednesday confirmed that a rocket had landed near the State Security building.

Ahrar a-Sham also struck the city’s port and nearby Hamimim airport, also known as Bassel International Airport, formerly a civilian airport that now houses a Russian air base, with “dozens of rockets” in Tuesday’s attack, said spokesman al-Hafawi.

“We targeted the port because of the weapons being received there,” al-Hafawi said. “All the airplanes that are striking our people in Jabal al-Akrad and Jabal al-Turkman take off from Hamimim and the Russian base” inside the airport.

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