By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Managing Editor, Impunity Watch

Damascus, Syria – Syrian State-run media outlet, the Syrian Arab News Agency, (SANA) reported that gunmen allegedly opened fire on a Syrian Member of Parlmement while he was in his car outside of the city of  Hama in the west of the country on Wednesday. SANA reported that the attack killed the lawmaker and another civilian. The Lawmaker was named as Waris al-Younes was a Member of the People’s Assembly representing the central province of Hama. According to SANA a sources within the Hama Police Command told the agency that that terrorists opened fire on al-Younes’ car near Um al-Twaikiye crossroads on Tuesday midnight while he was heading from Hama city to al-Salamiya city.

There have been several attacks targeting Syrian lawmakers and other government officials since the start of the Syrian Civil war in 2011. In 2012, a suicide bomber killed three of top military officials in Damascus and last April the prime minister survived an attack on his convoy in Damascus, which killed six. An estimated 200,000 people of a population of nearly 25 million have been killed over the course of the ongoing civil war in Syria.

The People’s Assembly condemned the attack, SANA said. Following the attack the Assembly put out a statement saying calling for those who carried out the attack to be punished. The statement said, “We tell those who were behind this crime that your terrorism will not intimidate us, but it will increase our commitment to confront takfiri mentality along with the Syrian Arab Army,” the Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The Assad Regime has been accused of carrying out collective punishment of civilian populations living in areas seen as loyal to anti-regime forces. One method of collective punishment used by the Assad Regime has been the use of Barrel Bombs, which are highly indiscriminate weapons made of explosives and shrapnel packed into large barrels, and heavy bombardments of civilian neighborhoods in many of Syria’s major cities including the city of Hama, the regime allegedly ramped up barrel bomb attacks in Hama over the past several weeks.

On Wednesday Syrian warplanes carried out raids on the countryside in area east of Hama province. Destructive and indiscriminate barrel bombs were dropped in the north, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which tracks the conflict. On the ground, pro-regime forces fought with Nusra Front and Islamist battalions in the north, the Observatory reported.

For more information please see:

Detroit Free Press – Syrian Lawmaker Killed As Kurds Fight Islamic State – 15 October 2014

Reuters – Gunmen Kill Syrian MP in Western Province: Agency– 15 October 2014

Syrian Arab News Agency (State-Run Media) – MP Waris Al-Younes and another Civilian Killed In Terrorist Attack in Hama… People’s Assembly Condemns Crime – 15 October 2014

Reuters – Assad Steps Up Bombing As West Strikes Militants in Syria – 26 September 2014