Assad's Regime Bombs Bridge Serving as Escape Route for Refugees

Syrian forces have launched a fiery attack on a bridge used for evacuating refugees and wounded civilians across the Lebanese border, Naharnet reported.

According to Lebanon's news service, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the al-Qusayr bridge in Homs, which was used as an escape route for civilians, was bombed on Tuesday.

The same bridge, according to an activist, was used a week earlier to carry wounded journalist Edith Bouvier, out of Homs, the report said. The bridge was hit by artillery shells, Syrian activist Hadi Abdallah said in a statement on the report. It can no longer be used.

It remains unclear if there were any casualties of the bombing. However, CNN has reported that at least 23 people belonging to opposition forces were killed across the nation on Tuesday.

CNN has also reported that about 2,000 civilians have made it across into Lebanon during the past two days, as estimated by Dana Suleiman, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. However, Syrian Arab News Agency officials said that some of them who fled the violence in Baba Amr, returned on Monday.

According to a report on the Guardian, the Avaaz activist group quoted an activist saying that several other bridges have been bombed by regime forces.

The army also shelled another bridges in the village of Rabla, the activist said. All access is blocked off and more checkpoints are being erected. Any person is arrested and movement is increasingly difficult.

According to Al Jazeera, several refugees had given an account of gunship and grenade attacks on families who were looking to escape into Lebanon. The neighboring country is now seeing a major influx of Syrian refugees who are desperately looking to escape the atrocities of Assad's regime.

We call on the Lebanese government and the Lebanese army to help us, to hide us, to hide our families, we don't want anything we just want the Lebanese government to help the Syrian people, we appeal to them, we call on them to help us, we call on the Muslims and the Arab governments to help us, a refuge was quoted saying to Al-Jazeera.

Meanwhile, international pressure condemning the violence in Syria continues to build up, with U.S. Senator John McCain on Monday pushing for airstrikes against Assad's government forces.