Riyadh, Ankara, Doha behind massacre of Syria civilians: Syrian PM

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi has held Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar responsible for the “brutal massacres” of civilians across his country.

Halqi said on Saturday that the three countries are the main supporters of the Takfiri terrorist groups fighting in Syria to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.

He condemned terrorist bombings outside the holy shrine of Hazrat Zaynab (Peace Be Upon Her) on Damascus suburbs on Saturday, which left at least 20 people dead and dozens of others injured.

Such acts of terror, he said, are being carried out to undermine Syria's security, restore terrorists’ morale and compensate for failures in the face of recent advances by the “valiant” Syrian government forces.

Halqi further called upon the international community to fulfill its "human, moral and legal responsibilities" vis-à-vis terrorist attacks in Syria and adopt punitive measures against Riyadh, Ankara and Doha as the "main supporters and financiers" of Takfiri militants.

The prime minister went on to say that terrorist attacks "will by no means scare the Syrian nation, and will rather cement their determination to obtain victory and defeat terrorism."

On Saturday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry sent two letters to the United Nations and Security Council, calling for immediate action against Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. 

They were similar to two other letters sent to the UN last month after deadly terrorist bombings killed at least 154 people in the coastal cities of in Tartus and Jablah.

The letters said the terrorist bombings were a “dangerous escalation by the hostile and extremist regimes in Riyadh, Ankara and Doha.”

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Damascus says Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar are the main supporters of the militants fighting the government forces.

On Saturday, political and media adviser to the Syrian president Bouthaina Shaaban said the Syrian nation would never bow to the West.

Speaking at the 16th anniversary of the demise of President Hafez al-Assad in Damascus, Shaaban said the ongoing crisis in Syria showed that Syrians love their homeland, and don’t care about anything other than their national interests.

On the battleground, Syrian troops established control over an oil pumping station and a power station in the northern city of al-Tabqa on Saturday as well as two oil fields in the western suburbs of Raqqah.

Syrian forces also shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle gathering information about army positions for Daesh over the Badiya desert in central Homs Province.

UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian crisis. The UN stopped its official casualty count in Syria more than two years ago, citing its increasing inability to verify the figures it received.

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