Shelling kills five kids at school in Syria
Russia invites Syrian Kurds to conference aimed at ending six years of fighting
BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Shelling killed around 10 people, including five children at a school gate, in a besieged rebel enclave near Syria’s capital Damascus on Tuesday, a day after a UN aid delivery to the area, a war monitor said.
The shelling also injured 30 other people in the eastern Ghouta area, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based monitor said the ongoing shelling that began Tuesday morning hit the towns of Jisreen, Douma, Saqba, Mesraba, Harasta, Ain Terma, Hazza and Kafr Batna.
On Monday, a United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy delivered aid to the towns of Kafr Batna and Saqba.
A tightening siege by government forces has pushed people to the verge of famine in the eastern suburbs, residents and aid workers said last week, bringing desperation to the only major rebel enclave near the Syrian capital.
Syrian state television on Tuesday said shells also had hit parts of government-held Damascus, wounding at least five people.
In July, Moscow and rebels in eastern Ghouta signed a deal to make the area a “deescalation zone.” The agreement raised hopes of open crossings and aid flows.
The aid organization International Rescue Committee said on Monday that the deescalation zone agreements with rebel areas across Syria were failing to protect civilians.
“The safety of civilians has not improved with the establishment of these so-called deescalation areas. With so many armed groups not covered by cease-fire agreements, we have even seen periods of increased aerial bombardment,” said Tom Garofalo, IRC’s Middle East director of public affairs.
Also on Tuesday, a Russian submarine fired cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria’s Deir al-Zor province, the RIA news agency said, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry.
The submarine, Veliky Novgorod, launched three Kalibr missiles from the eastern Mediterranean, the agency reported.
Meanwhile, Russia has invited the Kurdish-led authorities in northern Syria to its proposed congress of Syria’s rival parties, a senior Kurdish official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The congress would focus on looking for “compromise solutions towards a political settlement” more than six years into Syria’s conflict, a Russian negotiator has said.
“We are studying the issue and our stance has been positive so far,” said Badran Jia Kurd, an adviser to the administration that governs Kurdish-led autonomous regions of northern Syria.
They received the invitation at meetings with Russian officials in northern Syria last month and favor the idea, as it strives for a political end to the conflict, he said.
Throughout the war, the main Syrian Kurdish parties have been left out of peace talks at the request of Turkey, which views the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia as a security threat on its border.
Since 2011, the YPG and its allies have carved out cantons in the North and now hold at least a quarter of the country. They have seized much ground by fighting ISIS with the help of the United States.
Moscow, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has sought to lead diplomatic efforts between various warring Syrian factions over the past year. Reports came out of Moscow on Tuesday that the congress would be held in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on November 18, bringing together all of Syria’s groups for national dialogue and work on a new constitution.
It remains unclear which other groups or combatants in the multi-sided war would take part.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who first mentioned the congress this month, has said it would include “all ethnic and religious groups and the government and the opposition.”