Syrian troops bombard rebel enclave; chlorine use alleged
BEIRUT — Syrian government forces seized vast swaths of territory in the opposition-held suburbs of Damascus on Wednesday, effectively dividing the besieged enclave in two and further squeezing rebels and tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside, state media and a war monitor reported.
The government, after seven years of war, has resorted to extreme levels of shelling and bombardment to clear the way for its troops . Hundreds have been killed in the past two weeks, including dozens reported Wednesday.
Doctors and residents reported intense shelling and cases of suffocation and difficulty breathing, accusing the government of using chlorine gas Wednesday night. Hamza Hassan, a surgeon at one of the hospitals in eastern Ghouta, said he had treated 29 children with difficulties breathing.
Such reports could not be independently confirmed. The government has repeatedly denied using chlorine gas.
Syria’s Central Military Media said troops took control of the town of Beit Sawa and most of Misraba.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that by nightfall, Syrian government troops and allied militias had seized half of the territory held by rebels in eastern Ghouta and split the enclave in two halves.
The Britain-based Observatory, which monitors the war through a network of activists on the ground, said more than 50 people were killed in the bombardment Wednesday.
U.N. Secretary-general Antonio Guterres has urged all parties to abide by a 30-day cease-fire ordered by the Security Council on Feb. 24 to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians. A rare humanitarian aid convoy made it to eastern Ghouta on Monday but was forced to cut short its mission amid severe bombardment by the government. It was not clear whether another convoy, planned for Thursday, would go through.
The Security Council was expected to meet Wednesday to address the stillborn cease-fire.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has cleared the way for Archbishop Oscar Romero to be made a saint, declaring that the churchman murdered by El Salvador’s right-wing death squads for standing up for the poor and oppressed should be a model for today’s church.
Francis signed a decree confirming a miracle attributed to Romero’s intercession on Tuesday, the same day he approved a miracle for another important figure for the 20th century Catholic Church, Pope Paul VI, the Vatican said Wednesday.
No date was set for either canonization. Vatican officials have previously said Paul VI would likely be canonized in October, during a big Vatican meeting of bishops.
The Vatican official who spearheaded Romero’s sainthood cause, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, said he hoped the two would be declared saints together in October, saying a joint canonization would give Catholics a “burst” of energy and example of the need to live one’s life for others.
“I’m in a hurry because there’s an urgent need to change the world,” Paglia told The Associated Press.
Another option would be to canonize Romero closer to home, such as when Francis travels to Panama in January for World Youth Day. The big Catholic youth rally will unite tens of thousands of young Catholics from across Central and South America, where Romero is consideredahero.
Romero was gunned down by rightwing death squads on March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel. The country’s military dictatorship had vehemently opposed his preaching against the army’s repression of the poor at the start of the country’s 1980-1992 civil war.
News of his pending canonization was met with celebration in San Salvador, where President Salvador Sanchez Ceren tweeted that Francis’ decision “fills us with immense joy.”
Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez, a close associate of Romero, called it “an answer from God to the outcry of a people who have suffered so much.”
Paglia said Romero’s example of literally paying with his life for the poorest of the poor was particularly needed today, “in a world full of individualism and oppression, where inequality grows rather than diminishes.”
Romero biographer Roberto Morozzo della Rocca, who collaborated with Paglia on the saint-making case, said Romero’s witness in opposing violence would resonate particularly in Latin America, “where violence by youth gangs has brought enormous suffering and created a true nightmare for the population.”
Pope Benedict XVI unblocked Romero’s stalled sainthood case in December of 2012, and Francis pushed it through, declaring him a martyr for the faith in 2015.