GHOUTA’S HELL CONTINUES AS AIR STRIKES KILL 28
Seven children and 11 women among dead after attacks by Russian and government forces
At least 28 civilians were killed on Wednesday in the Syrian opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, most of them in Russian air raids.
Victims were taken to a hospital in Douma where rescuers were bringing in mostly women and children.
Medical staff tried to revive an infant who had been pulled from the rubble, but without success. A young girl among the wounded received stitches for a serious injury to her face.
“Among the wounded were two women in their twenties. One of them lost both eyes and the other lost one eye,” said a medical source.
According to the Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 19 people were killed by Russian strikes in the town of Misraba, while the remainder died in shelling by government forces.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said seven children and 11 women were among those killed.
The war in Syria has killed more than 340,000 people and displaced millions from their homes since it began in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Eastern Ghouta, a small enclave east of the capital Damascus, is controlled mostly by rebels from the Jaish alIslam group.
Russia first launched bombing raids in 2015 in support of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad’s beleaguered forces. The strikes have helped Mr Al Assad to regain control over much of the war-ravaged country.
The Observatory relies on a network of sources inside Syria and says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.
The latest raids came after at least seven civilians, including five children, were killed on Tuesday by air strikes in northwest Idlib province, the last area outside government control, the Observatory said.
Government and allied forces backed by Russian warplanes have been battling extremist fighters and rebels for more than a week in an area straddling the boundary between Idlib and Hama provinces.
The government push on the edge of Idlib province comes after two months of sporadic fighting that the United Nations said had displaced more than 60,000 people.
Idlib province, held by Tahrir al-Sham, was one of four de-escalation zones agreed to help halt fighting in Syria by regime backers Russia and Iran, and rebel supporter Turkey.
Observers say government forces first aim to take control of the south-east of Idlib province, allowing the regime full control of a road that links the capital Damascus to the government-held second city of Aleppo.
According to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights Mr Al Assad’s regime dropped almost 70,000 barrel bombs between 2012 and 2017. The worst-hit areas have been civilian population centres.
Russia yesterday denied a report in the daily newspaper
Kommersant that seven Russian planes had been destroyed by rebel shelling at Syria’s Hmeymim air base on December 31, according to Russian news agency Tass.
The report cited two “military-diplomatic” sources.
The ministry also said two Russian service personnel were killed in a mortar attack on the base by rebels.
Earlier on Wednesday, Moscow’s defence ministry said a Russian helicopter crashed in Syria on New Year’s Eve as a result of a technical fault. Both pilots were killed. The Mi-24 military helicopter was flying to Hama, north-west Syria and there was no firing from the ground, agencies reported.
“Both pilots died in a hard landing 15km from the air base,” the ministry said, and that a technician had been injured and taken to another air base for emergency treatment.
Russia’s defence minister Sergey Shoigu last month said the military had completed the partial withdrawal from Syria ordered by president Vladimir Putin, but Moscow would maintain a presence in the country, including three battalions and two bases.
Moscow acknowledged in recent months that its special forces were active on the ground in the offensive against ISIL fighters.
Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hizbollah group said the Syrian war, now in its seventh year, will be finished in a year or two at most. In an interview with Lebanon’s pro-Iran al-Mayadeen channel on Wednesday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also said Israeli strikes on Hizbollah positions in Syria did not, and would not, prevent supplies of weapons reaching the group.
Hizbollah and other Iranbacked groups have backed Mr Al Assad throughout the conflict, which began in 2011.