PHOTO: A girl wounded by Sunday’s regime attacks on Douma near Damascus
LATEST
- Regime Captures Key Village East of Damascus
- Iran Denies Withdrawal of Forces from Syria
- Free Syrian Army Denies Russian Assistance: “Putin and His Generals Are Liars”
- Jabhat al-Nusra Claims Heavy Defeat of Regime Forces South of Aleppo
Syria’s Assad regime has carried out another mass killing near Damascus, with at least 58 people killed and many more wounded and missing in opposition-held suburbs.
Scores of missiles and bombs were fired upon areas such as Douma, Saqba, Irbeen, Zamalka, Ain Tarma, Hamouriya, and Kafr Batna throughout Sunday. It was unclear whether Russian as well as regime forces were involved in the attacks.
The Local Coordinating Committees said it had documented the deaths of at least 58 people, adding that “the total…might increase due to the large number of wounded and missing”.
Videos and pictures showed men carrying wounded children out of smoke-filled devastation in Douma and bloodied boys and girls being treated in makeshift clinics. A school was reportedly among the targets, and activists claimed cluster bombs were among the munitions.
See Syria Daily, Dec 13: Regime Airstrikes Kill Scores Near Damascus
Douma, the base of the rebel faction Jaish al-Islam, has been repeatedly bombarded since the summer. Several hundred civilians have been slain, with more than 100 dying on a single day.
Pro-Assad accounts said Sunday’s bombardment was in response to more than 30 rockets fired by Jaish al-Islam on areas of Damascus. State news agency SANA asserted that six people were killed and 43 wounded in the attacks.
SANA ignored the regime’s operations near the capital.
Aftermath of the attack on Douma:
Men carry children out of the rubble:
Video by the White Helmets civil defense organization on the attacks:
Foreign Minister Meets UN Official
The regime’s assault on the Damascus suburbs came as Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem hosted the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, Stephen O’Brien.
According to SANA, al-Moallem declared the regime’s “commitment to meeting the basic needs of its people to bolster their resilience in the fight against terrorism”.
O’Brien supposedly expressed “his appreciation of the facilitations provided by the Syrian government and its cooperation to the effect of making these efforts bear fruit”.
The UN official said on Monday that he was “deeply saddened” by mortar shells that hit Damascus and regime airstrikes on opposition-held suburbs: “This is a tragic reminder of the urgency of finding a political solution and securing a nationwide ceasefire.”
The LCC said a total of 113 deaths across Syria were confirmed on Sunday, including those of 23 children and 16 women. At least 25 people were killed in Aleppo Province and 13 in Hama Province.
The floor of a bombed school in Douma:
Regime Captures Key Village East of Damascus
The Syrian military has made a notable advance east of Damascus, taking parts of the village of Marj al-Sultan (see map) after a heavy aerial bombardment.
Rebels acknowledged that a reserve airbase has been lost. Clashes are ongoing for the nearby helicopter base, according to local sources.
If the regime establishes control of the area, it can increase pressure on nearby opposition-held suburbs such as Irbeen and Douma.
Iran Denies Withdrawal of Forces from Syria
An Iranian Foreign Ministry official has denied reports that Tehran is withdrawing military forces from Syria.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s military advisors will continue their presence in Syria to help the Syrian Government with the war on terrorism,” the official told Fars News, the outlet of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, on Monday.
Bloomberg reported last Thursday, from unnamed US officials, that “significant numbers of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps troops” had left Syria in recent weeks, following the confirmed deaths of almost 100 personnel — including eight commanders — since October 7.
In October, The Wall Street Journal cited expert assessments there more than 7,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members and Iranian-led foreign militia had joined the Syrian military in a six-front offensive against rebels and the Islamic State. In late October, General Joseph Dunford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified there were 2,000 Iranian troops in Syria.
A “senior Western defense official” told Bloomberg that there were now only 700 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members in the offensives, supported by Russian airstrikes.
Last week, Iran named Brigadier General Gholam Hossein Gheibparvar as its overall commander in Syria. He replaces General Hossein Hamedani, who was killed on October 7 east of Aleppo.
See Iran Daily, Dec 14: “No Disagreement with Russia Over Syria”
Free Syrian Army Denies Russian Assistance: “Putin and His Generals Are Liars”
The Free Syrian Army has pointedly denied any support from Russia, as President Vladimir Putin claimed on Friday and as a top Russian general repeated today.
See Syria Feature: Putin — We Are Supporting the Free Syrian Army
Hassan Haj Ali, the head of the Free Syrian Army group Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, said:
Today our headquarters in Jabal Akrad [in Latakia Province] were bombed by Russia. Yesterday our headquarters in rural northern Aleppo were destroyed. I have 10 wounded. This is Russian support.
Putin and his generals are a bunch of liars.
Mohamed Rasheed, spokesman for the Jaish al-Nasr faction, echoed: “This is totally untrue. On the contrary, the Russian warplanes are bombing our headquarters on a daily basis.”
Putin and his officials have put out contradictory and confusing statements since Friday. Hours after the President’s claim of support, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said any arms supplies had gone to the Assad regime’s military.
However, on Monday Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russian army’s general staff, said that the number of Free Syrian Army units was “rising all the time” and that they had been provided with weapons, ammunition, and material support.
Then, in another shift, Putin’s aide for military-technical cooperation, Vladimir Kozhin, said Russia is not supplying the Free Syrian Army with weapons.
In recent weeks, the dissident faction Jaish al-Thuwar attacked rebels in a series of villages in northern Aleppo Province.
A spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, linked with Jaish al-Thuwar, said Russian warplanes had struck rebels who were encircling the SDF:
They saw them in gathered in the hundreds so certainly it was an opportunity for them to target them, but not through an agreement with us….
“People are trying to direct the matter towards the Democratic Forces of Syria because they think that they offered logistical support to us. They did not offer logistical support. There has been no contact, no agreement, or cooperation between us and the Russian army.”
Jabhat al-Nusra Claims Heavy Defeat of Regime Forces South of Aleppo
The Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra is claiming that it inflicted a heavy defeat on regime forces on the front in southern Aleppo Provincce.
Jabhat al-Nusra says it killed dozens of regime troops as they tried to retake the village of Banes, near the Aleppo-to-Damascus highway, over the weekend. The group has supported the claim with a series of graphic photographs of slain soldiers.
A Syrian military offensive — accompanied by Iranian and Hezbollah fighters and foreign militias — captured Banes as part of a push toward the M5 highway this autumn.
However, the offensive was checked just short of the vital route, and rebels recaptured Banes in late November.
