Hell on earth
UN chief’s Syria verdict as 150 kids killed in 5 days
ONE hundred and fifty children are feared to have been killed in bloody Syrian air attacks on a rebel- held enclave near Damascus.
Bashar al-Assad’s warplanes yesterday pounded the eastern Ghouta district for the fifth day running, turning it into a ‘ hell on earth’ according to UN secretary- general Antonio Guterres.
As the UN pleaded for a ceasefire to prevent a ‘massacre’, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 368 people, including 150 children, have been killed since Sunday night. Home Secretary Amber Rudd, visiting neighbouring Lebanon, said Britain was considering extending its commitment to resettle 20,000 vulnerable refugees from the brutal Syrian civil war.
Concern is growing that Russia has deployed a new stealth fighter to Syria for weapons testing. Footage appeared to show two Su-57 fifth-generation jets landing at Russia’s Khmeimim airbase in the country. The killing machine – which is yet to be tested in combat – is hard to track on enemy radars and is capable of autonomously assessing battlefield situations before striking targets with its deadly weaponry.
The deployment of the aircraft would represent the latest high-tech military system Russia has exhibited in Syria. The Kremlin has been accused of using the war-ravaged nation as a weaponstesting playground.
Meanwhile, a Royal Navy patrol ship was forced to escort three Russian warships as they travelled through the English Channel on their way back from the region. Russian spy ship Feodor Golovin, landing ship Alexander Ostrakovskiy and tanker Yelnya had been supporting Russian operations in Syria.
The deployment of Portsmouth-based HMS Mersey and a Wildcat helicopter from RNAS Yeovilton is the third time in two months that the Royal Navy has been scrambled to keep a watch on Russian vessels passing the UK.
In Lebanon Miss Rudd said 10,538 people from the Syrian war zone have already been granted refuge under a government scheme and the UK would reach its target of bringing in 20,000 by 2020.
The Home Secretary said she was already holding talks about what would follow when the target was met. She failed to rule out the option of bringing in more refugees, although sources said that other ways of helping, such as providing support in the region, would be more likely.
During a trip to a refugee camp she told the BBC: ‘20,000 is definitely achievable by 2020, and I hope we may get there earlier than that.
‘I am consulting with stakeholders and engaging with other departments to decide what we should have to replace that after 2020. I am going to make sure we have something post-2020 but I’m not sure yet what shape it is.’
Yesterday world leaders ramped up the pressure for an urgent ceasefire in Syria.
The UN Security Council was expected to vote on a resolution, called for by Sweden and Kuwait, ordering a ceasefire to allow relief agencies to deliver aid and evacuate the sick and wounded from besieged areas.
A spokesman for Syrian Civil Defence, a search-and-rescue group, said eastern Ghouta was being targeted for ‘extermination’. Siraj Mahmoud said: ‘This is a war against civilians. The civil defence is being targeted as they rescue women and children.’