Russia says US plans to hit Syrian capital, vows response
MOSCOW/DAMASCUS — Russia said on Tuesday it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack.
Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia’s General Staff, said Moscow had information that rebels in the enclave of eastern Ghouta were planning to fake a chemical weapons attack against civilians and blame it on the Syrian Army.
He said the US intended to use the fake attack as a pretext to bomb the government quarter in nearby Damascus where he said Russian military advisers, military police and cease-fire monitors were based.
“In the event of a threat to the lives of our servicemen, Russia’s armed forces will take retaliatory measures against the missiles and launchers used,” Gerasimov said in a statement.
He did not say when the alleged attack would take place or provide detailed evidence to back his assertions.
The head of Russia’s military General Staff and chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke by phone on Tuesday and discussed the situation in Syria, the Pentagon and Russian Defense Ministry said.
Meanwhile, after being trapped in eastern Ghouta for six years, nearly 150 civilians who managed to evacuate the rebel-held areas could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
A total of 146 civilians — 44 women, 24 men and 78 children — formed the first major civilian convoy to leave the area since a humanitarian corridor was set up 14 days ago.
The civilians were taken to a temporary shelter at a school in the Wafidin area, where the children were vaccinated immediately.
At the temporary shelter, where people were waiting for their documents to be processed and to get medical checkups, some infants were seen receiving medicine drips through their noses.
Noura Rayyes was sitting with her brother and sister, waiting for their mother to finish her medical examination in an ambulance outside.
She said that they were happy to get out of the area because her mother needs emergency surgery but there is no medical help in eastern Ghouta.
“The situation of my mother has become very bad and we couldn’t treat her inside Ghouta with the lack of medication, not to mention the soaring prices and the lack of everything else,” Noura said.
Samya Jaber, another evacuee who managed to leave eastern Ghouta with her father and three children, said she was desperate to get medication ill father.
“Our situation was very bad inside, with no food or any life necessities. Thankfully we registered our names and were evacuated by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. The people here are treating us well but we still have families inside who couldn’t leave,” she said. for her critically