Dozens killed in Syrian assault on Yarmuk camp: Monitor
More than a dozen Syrian regime forces have been killed fighting the Daesh group in a devastated southern district of the capital Damascus; G7 foreign ministers say Russia has to help solve Syria crisis
BEIRUT: More than a dozen Syrian REGIME Forces HAVE BEEN killed IGHTING the Daesh group in a devastated southern district of the capital Damascus, a monitoring group said on Monday.
Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad ramped up their ground operations and bombing raids against the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmuk in southern Damascus last Thursday.
SINCE then, 15 pro-assad ighters have been killed as well as 19 Daesh militants, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
THE BRITAIN-BASED war monitor SAID the assault has also left 12 civilians dead, including women and children.
“Regime forces are continuing to bomb the southern parts of the capital with rockets, artillery, air strikes and helicopters,” the Observatory said.
Yarmuk was once a densely populated and thriving district of the capital, but it has been ravaged by violence since Syria’s Conlict Broke out In 2011.
Syria’s government imposed a crippling SIEGE on It In 2012, AND IGHTING has also broken out between rebels and rival group.
In 2015, Daesh overran most of Yarmuk, and other rebels, including from Al QAEDA’S Former AFILIATE, AGREED to withdraw just a few weeks ago.
Simultaneously, the Syrian army was recapturing the last rebel pockets in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus that had been the opposition’s main bastion near the capital.
Troops last week shifted their attention to Yarmuk, but humanitarian organisations have sounded the alarm.
The UN’S Palestinian refugee agency said the bombardment has put the last operating hospital in Yarmuk out of service and displaced most of the camp’s 6,000 remaining civilians.
Separately, Syrian security services chief Ali Mamluk has refused to appear before a military tribunal in Lebanon to FACE terror-related CHARGES, A Court source told AFP on Monday.
Mamluk, a member of President Bashar Al Assad’s inner circle, was accused in 2013 by Lebanon’s government of “attempting to murder politicians and other citizens, and carrying out terrorist acts”.
The charge is linked to a case that saw Lebanon’s former information minister Michel Samaha sentenced to 13 years in prison after he was caught transporting explosives from Syria for use in attacks in Lebanon.
Samaha admitted early on in his trial that he was plotting the attacks with Mamluk’s help.
Since 2013, Lebanon has had an arrest warrant out for Mamluk, 72, and has been serving subpoenas to Syria in his name, but it was unclear if he was receiving them.
Monday’s hearing marked a rare acknowledgement of an attempted delivery.
“During a hearing by the military court on Monday, the subpoena returned (from Damascus) without the accused’s signature,” the source told AFP.
“But it included a note saying the accused would only agree to appear in court in front of a commission made up entirely of major generals,” said the court source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Without Mamluk’s signature, the subpoena could not be considered successfully delivered by the court, which set a new hearing for Oct.29.
Mamluk has rarely travelled outside of Syria — or even appeared publicly — SINCE THE Conlict In HIS Country Erupted in March 2011.
He was appointed as the head of national security in 2012 after a major explosion in Damascus killed four top security oficials.
Another legal source told AFP it would be impossible to honour Mamluk’s request to appear before a special military court.
“It would require a special law, and there aren’t seven major generals in Lebanon. Only the heads of security agencies have that title,” the source said.
Separately, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations will on Monday formally call on Russia to contribute to solving the crisis in Syria, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in Toronto on Monday.
ASKED what THE inal Communique From THE two-day MEETING would say, Maas told reporters that “It establishes again that there will be no political solution in Syria without Russia... and that Russia has to contribute its share to such a solution”.
Separately, Israel ired At A Syrian artillery position on Monday after a mortar round Fell Close to THE ISRAELIoccupied sector of the Golan Heights, the army said.
“A mortar shell fell adjacent to the security fence in the northern Golan HEIGHTS,” THE Army SAID In An ENGLISHlanguage statement, adding it was apparently a stray shot from the Syrian war. “In response, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) targeted one artillery PIECE In THE AREA From WHICH THE ire originated, in the northern Syrian Golan Heights,” it said.
An army spokeswoman declined to say what kind of ire Israel Employed in its response.