Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Shelling, airstrikes kill dozens in Syria
BEIRUT — Syrian government shelling and airstrikes on rebel-held Damascus suburbs killed at least 194 people in two days, marking some of the deadliest bombardment of the rebellious region in three years, activists and paramedics said Tuesday.
Retaliatory shells rained down on Damascus, killing at least eight people and causing panic among residents of the Syrian capital, the seat of President Bashar Assad’s power.
The violence in the capital and nearby areas came as scores of pro-government gunmen began entering the northern Kurdish enclave of Afrin. Turkish troops shelled the areas shortly after the fighters entered, forcing journalists to flee.
The targeted suburbs — scattered across an area known as eastern Ghouta — have been subjected to weekslong bombardment that has killed and wounded hundreds of people. Opposition activists say government forces have brought in more reinforcements in recent days, suggesting a major assault is imminent to recapture the area that is the last main rebel stronghold near Damascus.
The area that has been under tight siege since last year is home to about 400,000 people as well as thousands of insurgents belonging to different factions. The most powerful are the ultraconservative Army of Islam and Failaq al-Rahman, as well as a small presence of al-Qaidalinked fighters.
Videos from the eastern suburbs showed paramedics pulling out the injured from under the rubble while others are seen frantically digging through the debris in the dark, in search for survivors.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based watchdog that relies on a network of activists in Syria, reported that 144 people had been killed Monday, while a fresh round of violence Tuesday had left 50 more dead. The Observatory said it constituted the deadliest days in eastern Ghouta since 2015, adding that many children were among the dead.
The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations put the two-day death toll at 200 or more. The Syrian American Medical Society, which supports hospitals in the area, put the 48-hour death toll at 250.
Both the Observatory and the opposition-affiliated Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, reported airstrikes and shelling Tuesday in eastern Ghouta as rebels pounded Damascus with mortar shells.
The Observatory said the “crazy shelling” appears to be paving the way for a wide ground offensive on eastern Ghouta. If captured by government forces, it would be another major victory for Assad since the conflict began seven years ago.
Rebels retaliated by hitting some Damascus neighborhoods with mortar shells, killing at least eight people, including three children, and wounding 15 people, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. On Tuesday morning, Damascus residents reported shelling of areas in central Damascus.
“Shells are falling like rain. We are hiding in the corridor,” a Damascus resident said, asking that her name not be mentioned for her own safety. She spoke while hiding in the corridor of an office building.
“It’s a bloody day,” said Abdelrahman Shahin, a 31-yearold resident of Damascus who was walking on the street when a shell landed on a nearby taxi, killing the driver and a passenger in front of his eyes.
“They both died,” he said, visibly shaken. “The driver was out for his livelihood. His family will be waiting for him.”
Syrian state TV later reported live from the streets of Damascus to show what it called the people’s “steadfastness” despite the shelling. The TV reporter said residents expressed hope that the Syrian army would retake eastern Ghouta.
Army of Islam official Mohammed Alloush and Nasr al-Hariri, who heads the committee that represents the Syrian opposition, described what is happening in eastern Ghouta as a new “Holocaust” committed by the government and its backers Iran and Russia.
The U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura decried a recent upsurge in violence, expressing concerns that eastern Ghouta could fall victim to widespread bloodshed like that in northern Aleppo more than a year ago. Assad’s forces captured Aleppo in December 2016 in his biggest victory since the conflict began in March 2011.
“Bottom line: If we have learned something from Aleppo, [it’s] time to actually avoid all this,” de Mistura said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement saying that “this cannot go on.” It called “distressing” the reports of dozens injured and killed every day in eastern Ghouta with “families trapped, with no safe place to hide from shelling. Dozens of mortars in Damascus cause civilian casualties and spread fear. We cannot let history repeat itself.”
In northern Syria, Syrian state TV reported that Turkish troops shelled the entrance of the northern Kurdish enclave of Afrin shortly after scores of pro-government fighters entered the area. The TV showed shells falling in an area where journalists gathered Tuesday afternoon, forcing some of them to flee the area.
Minutes before the shelling, about 20 vehicles with heavy machine guns mounted on them were seen entering the area as part of an agreement between the government and the main Kurdish militia in Syria known as the People’s Protection Units. Turkish state media reported the pro-government forces then fell back 6 miles from Afrin city.
Turkey has threatened Syrian troops not to help People’s Protection fighters, warning that it will fight its backers.
Turkey considers the People’s Protection Units a “terrorist group” linked to the Kurdish insurgency within Turkey’s borders. On Jan. 20, it kicked off a major air and ground offensive, pounding the enclave with airstrikes and artillery on a daily basis.