MILITANT MORTAR ATTACK KILLS OVER 20 IN SOUTHERN SYRIA

Damascus, 24 Rajab 1435/24 May 2014 (MINA) – More than 20 people have reportedly been killed and scores of others injured in a mortar attack by foreign-backed Takfiri militants on an election campaign rally in southern Syria.

According to the so-called Observatory for Human Rights, the mortar shells fired by the militants struck a tent in the southern city of Dara’a, where supporters of incumbent Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had gathered on Thursday to back his re-election in the country’s upcoming presidential vote.

Almost 20 people, including a child, were killed and over 30 others wounded in the Takfiri mortar attack, according to the UK-based group, which opposes the Syrian government.

Anti-Damascus Takfiri groups have recently stepped up their deadly attacks against Syrians in several cities and towns as the Arab country is preparing to hold an important presidential election on June 3, Press TV reported as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

The presidential vote will be held in the government-controlled parts of the crisis-hit country. Syrians living abroad are also set to vote on May 28.

Damascus has insisted that it would hold the presidential poll despite the foreign-backed militancy that has, according to some sources, killed over 150,000 people and displaced millions of others since it erupted in Syria in March 2011.

The modern Syrian state was established after the first World War as a French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab Levant.

It gained independence in April 1946, as a parliamentary republic. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–1971. Between 1958 and 1961, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt, which was terminated by a military coup.

Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, and its system of government is considered to be non-democratic.Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. (T/P012/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)