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Summary At least 18 bodies were found in the rubble of a house.
Syrian army bulldozers razed houses in western Damascus on Monday, pursuing what activists called collective punishment of Sunni Muslim areas hostile to President Bashar al-Assad.In northern Syria, 18 bodies were found in the rubble of a house bombed by a Syrian warplane in the rebel-held town of al-Bab and 13 more are missing, an opposition watchdog group said.Bulldozers backed by combat troops demolished buildings in the poor Tawahin district, near the Damascus-Beirut highway, activists and residents said. They started three hours ago. The bulldozers are bringing down shops and houses. The inhabitants are in the streets, said a woman who lives in a high-rise building overlooking the area.Syrian authorities restrict independent media access, making it hard to verify accounts of the conflict from both sides.Troops forced residents to erase anti-Assad graffiti and write slogans glorifying the president instead, activists said.This is an unprovoked act of collective punishment. The rebels had left, there are no longer even demonstrations in the area, said Mouaz al-Shami, a campaigner collecting video documentation of the demolitions.The regime cant stop itself from repeating the brutality of the 1980s, he said, alluding to mass killings and wholesale destruction in the city of Hama in 1982 under Assads father, the late Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 30 years.The Assad family and most members of the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The regime has not changed. It will not, Shami said.Activists also reported the razing or burning of at least 200 houses and shops in the old part of the southern city of Deraa in the last few days. Army shelling had largely emptied the area, prompting 40,000 people to flee to Jordan.
