Twitter suspends Nusra Qalamoun account as barrel bombs rain down

BOMB SQUAD: The regime pounded the opposition-held border town of Zabadani with six barrel bombs on Monday after a weekend during which it pummeled one of the last rebel-controlled towns in the Qalamoun mountains with nearly 50 other barrel bombs, said the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The bombing was ongoing at the time of publication.

Ahrar a-Sham controls most of Zabadani, located northwest of Damascus along the border with Lebanon. Jabhat a-Nusra also has a presence in the region, with its forces crossing the border into Lebanon at will.

The regime still controls southern parts of Zabadani.

Monday’s attack comes in the wake of 32 barrel bombs dropped on the town on Sunday and 16 on Saturday as regime forces attempt to reclaim two checkpoints in the city that rebels had seized last week, reported the pro-opposition news agency Halab Today.

Syrian state news agency SANA said that the Syrian army pushed back rebel forces and captured a town outside Zabadani.

“A number of terrorists with Jabhat a-Nusra and the so-called Ahrar a-Sham were killed, and their weapons and ammunition were destroyed,” a regime military source told SANA.

Nusra has not yet commented on Monday’s attack as of publishing, as its official Twitter account for the Qalamoun region was suspended over the weekend.

Zabadani is currently going through a food crisis, as civilians face life without flour, bread or milk as a result of a regime siege that has limited the entrance of goods for more than two years, according to the Local Coordination of a-Zabadani.

-February 2, 2015

-Photo courtesy of Zabadani LCC

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