Rockets strike Damascus
Battle in Syria capital as insurgents break through security perimeter
FIERCE clashes broke out in the Syrian capital yesterday after insurgents infiltrated governmentheld parts of the eastern side of the city through tunnels overnight, state media said.
It was a surprising breach of the government’s Damascus security perimeter, where it has effectively walled itself off against two opposition enclaves.
Residents said artillery shells and rockets were landing inside the heart of the city, and the activist-run Damascus Today Facebook group reported government air raids over the area of the clashes.
Reinforcements arrived on the government side to repel the attack in the afternoon, the group said.
The clashes centred around the city’s Abasseen neighbourhood, a government-held area sandwiched between the besieged, oppositionheld Jobar and Qaboun neighbourhoods.
With its military depleted from six years of fighting and defections, the Syrian government relies on official and semi-official forces to defend its territory, including Shi’ite militias from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries.
Rebels detonated two large car bombs at 5.20am yesterday close to Jobar.
Syrian state media said the military repelled an attack by an al Qaida-linked group after “terrorists” infiltrated through tunnels in the middle of the night.
Jobar is one of three pockets in the Syrian capital still in opposition hands. It has been besieged by government forces since 2013.
The fighting came as it was reported desperate Syrians fleeing the devastating war are finding refuge in sub-Saharan Africa.
One imam from Aleppo, Abdul Ghani Bandenjki, first visited Ghana in 2006 after being invited to officiate at prayers during the Ramadan holy month.
When fighting broke out in Syria five years later, Bandenjki decided to return to the West African nation more than 3,000 miles away.
Now the 42-year-old tutors students of the Koran outside the capital, Accra.
What was once a temporary solution for his family has started to look permanent, though adjusting has not been easy. “We just want the war to end so that one day we can go back to our country,” he said.
As millions fled Syria, Bandenjki’s brothers and sisters left for Turkey and Lebanon. Other family members scattered across Europe.
Bandenjki’s journey with his wife and four children has been the longest. He stays in touch with his surviving relations as best as he can.
There are no firm statistics on the number of Syrians there, he said, but he believes the figure is close to 1,000.
Fleeing Syrians have found refuge in pockets across sub-Saharan Africa, even as far as South Africa.
An estimated 300 are in Somalia’s relatively peaceful breakaway northern territory of Somaliland.
In contrast to the millions living in camps in Syria’s overwhelmed neighbours, the Syrians find themselves relatively free.
“We have a generous asylum policy,” said Tetteh Padi, programme co-ordinator for the Ghana Refugee Board. “They are free to move about. They can look for work.”