LATEST: Video — Insurgents Take Regime Post on Major Highway in Idlib Province
Aid to the besieged neighborhood of Yarmouk in Damascus has been cut off again following clashes in the area between insurgents and regime forces.
On Sunday, the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra fought the Syrian military. Well-placed sources claimed, @Regime broke the truce and stopped aid deliveries, so rebels retook their former positions to defend the people from attacks.”
State News agency SANA blames opposition fighters, quoting a grandmother:
Strangers and gunmen entered the camp, they destroyed our houses, stole our furniture and deprived us of medicine and food. We had to pay lots of money to buy food from them.
An activist in Yarmouk, Abu Akram, said: “(The situation) will be like it was before. We are back to zero.”
Syrian forces have blockaded Yarmouk since insurgents took much of the area last July. More than 100 people died from lack of food, according to activists and aid workers.
A limited amount of aid was distributed in the past month among the 15,000 residents, mainly Palestinian, still in the neighborhood.
Video: Insurgents Take Regime Post on Major Highway in Idlib Province
Insurgents capture a regime post near Khan Shaykhoun, after taking a series of smaller checkpoints:
Regime warplanes retaliated with strikes on Khan Shaykhoun:
UN: Chemical Weapons in 2 Attacks Last Year “Came from Syrian Military’s Stockpiles”
United Nations investigators said on Wednesday that chemical weapons used in two incidents in Syria last year appear to come from Syrian military stockpiles.
The experts, led by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, reported on attacks on the Damascus suburb of al-Ghouta on August 21, which killed hundreds of civilians, and on Khan al-Assad near Aleppo in March 2013.
They concluded:
The evidence available concerning the nature, quality and quantity of the agents used on 21 August indicated that the perpetrators likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile of the Syrian military, as well as the expertise and equipment necessary to manipulate safely large amount of chemical agents.
Concerning the incident in Khan al-Assal on 19 March, the chemical agents used in that attack bore the same unique hallmarks as those used in al-Ghouta.
Israel Hits Hezbollah Fighters Near Syria Border
The Israeli army said Wednesday that it struck Hezbollah fighters near the Israel-Syria border.
“Earlier today, two Hezbollah-affiliated terrorists were identified attempting to plant an explosive device…in the northern Golan Heights. IDF (Israeli army) forces…fired towards the suspects (and) hits were identified,” the army said.
On February 24, Israeli warplanes bombed a Hezbollah position on the Lebanese-Syrian border, the latest in a series of strikes reportedly trying to disrupt weapons supplies to the Lebanese organization.
OPCW: About 1/3 of Assad’s Chemical Weapons Stock Shipped Out of Syria
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Tuesday that Syria has shipped out about 1/3 of its chemical weapons stockpile for destruction abroad.
Damascus missed deadlines in December and February to move more than 90% of its stocks to international ships. The final deadline for handover of all chemical weapons is June 30.
The OPCW said the regime has moved six consignments of toxic agents declared last year with two more shipments headed for the port of Latakia.
The agency said Syria submitted a revised plan to remove all chemicals from its territory by the end of April 2014.
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