World’s silence is killing Syrians: Opposition
JEDDAH: The world’s silence regarding atrocities committed by Damascus and Moscow is killing Syrians, opposition spokesman Yahya Al-Aridi said Thursday.
He was reacting to reports that at least 30 civilians were killed Thursday when Russian jets bombed a residential area in a besieged opposition-held enclave of Damascus.
“This stain of shame has been on the world’s forehead for seven continuous, painful years,” he told Arab News.
At least four bombs flattened two buildings in the Eastern Ghouta town of Misraba, killing around 20 people and wounding more than 40, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.
Elsewhere in Eastern Ghouta, the last major opposition-held enclave in Damascus, at least 10 people were killed by airstrikes in other towns, rescuers and residents said.
Video footage posted by activists on social media showed rescue workers pulling women and children from rubble.
“If Russia’s actions aren’t war crimes, what can they be called?” said Al-Aridi. “Russia has used its UN Security Council veto 11 times to protect the criminal Assad regime, because Russia itself is perpetrating war crimes in Syria.”
A Syrian opposition delegation “will head to the UN soon” to discuss the issue with the secretarygeneral and see what the Security Council and the world in general can do about it, Al-Aridi added.
Regime forces on Thursday battled to reach troops trapped in Eastern Ghouta, Agence FrancePresse (AFP) reported.
State television said army units had launched an assault to break the siege of the Armoured Vehicle Base, where some 250 soldiers are believed to be cut off.