LATEST: Regime Siege of Douma — “We Only Eat 1 Meal A Day”

Local activists claim that at least 90 people have been killed by regime airstrikes on the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa in northern Syria.

The activists said that at least 60 bodies had been taken to the city’s main hospital and that about 125 people had been injured. An Islamic State fighter in Raqqa Province said at least 70 people had been killed.

The opposition Local Coordination Committees said 87 people had died in and near Raqqa, claiming nine airstrikes with the collapse of a minaret and widespread destruction. They said the death toll could increase because of a severe shortage of drugs, medical equipment, and medical staff.

Raqqa, the largest city lost by the Assad regime in the 44-month conflict, was captured by insurgents in March 2013. The Islamic State, pushing out insurgent factions, took control late in the year.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition condemned the attacks as a “heinous crime” and asserted, “There are many among the Syrians who now believe that the Assad regime is believed to be the sole benefactor of the US led coalition airstrikes and it is time to review the strategy against ISIL [the Islamic State] on the ground.”

(Featured Photo: Nour Fourat/Reuters)


Regime Siege of Douma: “We Only Eat 1 Meal A Day”

Ismael Abdullah, a currency trader who lives in the besieged Damascus suburb of Douma, talks to Syria Direct:

Q: How have the prices of food changed since the closing of al-Wafidin Camp [on the last supply road into Douma]?

A: Rice was $1.90 before and is now $7.00 per kilo. Sugar was $1.60 and now is $7.20 per kilo. Flour was $2.15 and now is $4.00 per kilo.

The prices rose within days of the road’s closing. I think it will keep rising as the winter continues.

Q: What do people use for cooking and heating? How much does fuel cost?

A. Wood is mainly used for cooking and heating. One kilo of wood is about $0.35. Other people use different methods for heating and cooking, like burning trash. Very few people use methane gas and it’s being extracted in a primitive way in Douma. Its [high] price doesn’t match the average income.

Q: How have you managed with the increase in food prices?

A: We only eat one meal a day. We cook the meal late, around sunset, so we won’t eat again that day.

The regime is trying to force the capitulation of Douma, northeast of the capital, which has been held by insurgents since autumn 2012. Insurgents, including Jaish al-Islam, have held out against the pressure and the publicity for “reconciliation” similar to other local ceasefires near Damascus.

Abdullah also talks of the shortage of medical facilities in Douma, with only 10 doctors for an area with a pre-war population of 110,000, and of people moving around on bicycles and horse-drawn carts. He says most residents have to subsist with money sent from relatives living in other parts of Syria and outside the country.

Qatar’s Not-So-Covert “Covert” Training Base for Syrian Insurgents

Reuters dramatically headlines, “Qatar Runs Covert Desert Training Camp for Syrian Rebels“:

At a desert base, Gulf state Qatar is covertly training moderate Syrian rebels with U.S. help to fight both President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State and may include more overtly Islamist insurgent groups, sources close to the matter say.

The camp, south of the capital between Saudi Arabia’s border and Al Udeid, the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East, is being used to train the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other moderate rebels, the sources said.

In fact, soon after the Obama Administration’s summer presentation of its $500 million plan to train and equip insurgents, reports confirmed that Qatar and Saudi Arabia would be the location of the main training camps.

And last year insurgents told a documentary film crew that they were being “vetted” in Turkey and then trained in Qatar.

Still, Reuters presses on with an old story as new:

Syrian rebel sources said training in Qatar has included rebels affiliated to the “Free Syrian Army” from northern Syria.

The sources said the effort had been running for nearly a year, although it was too small to have a significant impact on the battlefield, and some rebels complained of not being taught advanced techniques….

Small groups of 12 to 20 fighters are identified in Syria and screened by the Central Intelligence Agency, the sources said.

Residents: Regime Takes Bribes for Families to Leave Damascus Suburb of Douma

Opposition websites are claiming that 80 families have left the besieged Damascus suburb of Douma, with residents asserting that they were allowed to depart after bribing regime officials.

Photos showed some of the families gathered in a shelter in a regime-controlled neighborhood in eastern Damascus.

A citizen journalist said security checks were carried out on all those who departed. A resident who was among the departing families said those with young men were allowed to exit for free, while those who had only women had to pay 100,000 Syrian pounds (about $580) per person. He said the young men were detained for 48 hours, with the regime taking away those wanted for mandatory military service.

Cabinet “Discusses Shortages in Water, Electricity, and Gas”

State news agency SANA reports that the Cabinet discussed shortages in water, electricty, and gas in a meeting on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi “Al-Halaqi stressed the need for all state establishments and bodies must take the necessary steps to improve those sectors’ performance and overcome all difficulties”.

The Government is trying to deal with widespread damage to infrastructure and loss of control over resources and facilities, including most of the country’s oilfields to the Islamic State. Prices have recently been increased for essential services, including a rise of up to 33% for diesel fuel and heating oil.

The Prime Minister criticized the spread of news about the shortages, saying that “there has been an escalation in the media war targeting Syria via certain websites and social networking sites which publish incorrect information”.