Pro-Assad strikes on Douma in East Ghouta area


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  • Russia Blocks 30-Day Extension of UN-OPCW Investigation of Chemical Attacks

  • UPDATE 1545 GMT: Local sources, including doctors, are claiming a likely chemical weapons attack by pro-Assad forces on the Damascus suburb of Harasta.

    Medical staff say they are treating victims suffering from vomiting, shortness of breath, and pinpoint pupils.

    Russia and the Assad regime have stepped up aerial attacks and shelling of the East Ghouta area since Tuesday, after rebels attacked a base near Harasta from where the regime has been firing rockets on opposition territory.


    ORIGINAL ENTRY: Nineteen people, including six children and three rescuers, were killed Friday in the latest pro-Assad attacks near Syria’s capital Damascus, according to activists and White Helmets civil defense.

    Douma, a center for the Syrian opposition in the Damascus suburbs, bore the brunt of 60 strikes yesterday. The White Helmets said its volunteers were targeted in “double tap” operations as they tried to rescue victims of initial attacks.

    Despite the Russian-backed declaration of a “de-escalation zone” this summer, the Assad regime’s military has continued shelling and rocketing of the suburbs. On Wednesday, Russian warplanes joined the attacks, killing at least 10 civilians in dozens of raids, after rebels tried to overrun a base near Harasta from where the regime has been launching its assaults.

    See Syria Daily, Nov 16: Renewed Russia-Regime Attacks Near Damascus

    About 400,000 residents are under siege in the East Ghouta area which includes Douma. The Assad regime has tightened the blockade this year, closing tunnels in March, shutting the last checkpoint for movement of food and supplies in July, and refusing all but one convoy of assistance. Last week the UN’s head of humanitarian operations for Syria, Jan Egeland, warned of an imminent “catastrophe” for civilians.

    The Assad regime’s news agency SANA claimed three civilians were killed on Friday by rebel shelling of the al-Hal Souk neighborhood in Damascus. On Thursday, it said rebel mortars killed at least 10 civilians, including the coach of the national karate team, Fadhel Radhi, in the Bab Mosala district.

    State Media: ISIS Car Bomb Kills 20 in Deir ez-Zor

    SANA says 20 civilians were killed and 30 others were injured by an Islamic State car bomb on Friday evening in Deir ez-Zor Province in eastern Syria.

    A SANA correspondent said the attack was between al-Jafra and al-Koniko in the north of the province. Women and children are among the victims.

    The Islamic State has been driven out of almost all its positions in Deir ez-Zor since the summer, facing offensives by both pro-Assad units and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. ISIS is trying to hold its last major position in Syria, al-Bukamal on the Iraq border.


    Iranian General Killed by ISIS Mortar Near al-Bukamal

    Gen. Khairallah Samadi of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been killed by an Islamic State mortar strike near al-Bukamal, ISIS’s last major position inside Syria.

    Iranian-led forces and Hezbollah, along with Assad regime units, have been trying for weeks to capture al-Bukamal, in Deir ez-Zor Province on the Iraqi border. They briefly entered the town two weeks ago but were soon pushed out by an ISIS ambush.

    Samadi (left) with Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force:

    SAMADI SOLEIMANI

    Hezbollah footage of urban combat with ISIS in al-Bukamal:


    Regime Demolishing Homes and Shops in Latakia

    Regime authorities in Latakia in western Syria have demolished dozens of homes and shops in a former Palestinian refugee camp over the past 12 days, residents say.

    Three residents said the makeshift homes, cafes, stores, and at least half of a major beachside market facility have been destroyed in the Ramal neighborhood in southern Latakia. Families who lost their houses have moved in with relatives or are sleeping outside at the city’s port.

    At least 10,000 registered Palestinians live in Ramal, which is on a strip of land that slopes towards the Mediterranean Sea. The district was first settled as an informal encampment in the 1950s by Palestinian refugees who fled northern Israel.

    Residents say the demolitions were carried out without prior warning or a satisfactory reason given by authorities. One store employee that “we were told that it was because there were non-regulation houses, that they needed to be destroyed”.


    Russia Blocks 30-Day Extension of UN-OPCW Investigation of Chemical Attacks

    Continuing its effort to shield the Assad regime from blame, Russia has blocked a 30-day extension of the mandate for chemical inspectors inside Syria.

    Russia vetoed a Japanese resolution to maintain the work of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a day after it blocked a longer-term renewal of the mandate for the Joint Investigative Mechanism, created in 2015 to not only evaluate attacks but also to confirm responsibility.

    Moscow refused to renew the JIM’s operations after the inspectors found that the Assad regime carried out a deadly sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun in northwest Syria in April 2017.

    The Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebezya, said Moscow would not accept even a limited extension of the mission unless “serious flaws in the commission’s work were eradicated”. He insisted that the JIM had “covered itself with shame”.