LATEST: Sources: Insurgents Continue to Inflict Losses on Assad Forces & Hezbollah Near Yabroud
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The 13 Maaloula nuns and three assistants freed by insurgents, in return for the release of 153 women — and possibly children — from Syrian prisons, are now in Damascus.
The 16 nuns and assistants were taken by opposition fighters from the ancient Christian town of Maaloula, northeast of Damascus, in early December. The regime said the women were abducted; insurgents said they were being protected from shelling by the Syrian military.
The women said they were treated well by the insurgents, as negotiations for their release — including Qatari and Lebanese mediators and a pro-Assad businessman, George Heswani — rested on the demand for freedom of female detainees.
Amid a Syrian offensive on Yabroud with sustained airstrikes, the nuns and assistants were moved last week to Lebanon and then brought across the Syrian border early Monday morning.
They were greeted in Damascus by a ceremony at the Church of the Cross in the neighbourhood of Qassaa.
The 153 released from Syrian prisons reportedly included the wife and children of a leading commander of the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra.
The acting Qatari ambassador to Lebanon denied media reports of a delay in the negotiations due to insurgents asking for ransom money. However, sources say Jabhat al-Nusra did seek “withdrawal of regime forces from religious Christian sites”, a condition rejected by the regime.
Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi claimed on State TV that only 25 detainees had been freed. He also insisted there had been no “direct or indirect Syrian-Qatari contacts” in the mediation effort.
Sources: Insurgents Continue to Inflict Losses on Assad Forces & Hezbollah Near Yabroud
Well-placed sources report that insurgents continue to inflict losses on Syrian forces and Hezbollah forces near Yabourd, northeast of Damascus.
The sources said that, despite air support, at least 36 pro-Assad fighters were killed on the Rima front line.
Meanwhile, “many civilians” have been killed or injured in Yabroud from airstrikes and artillery fire, according to the sources, there had also been more than two dozen jet attacks on the front line near Rima Farms.
Syrian forces have been trying for a month to take Yabroud, the biggest city in the Qalamoun region between Damascus and the Lebanese border. The regime troops briefly took Rima Farms last week but were soon pushed back.
UN: 10,000+ Children Killed in Conflict, Number Affected Doubles in Past Year
The United Nations Children’s Fund reported Monday that at least 10,000 children are confirmed to have been killed in the Syrian conflict, but the actual number is probably much higher.
UNICEF said 5.5 million children have been affected, more than twice the number estimated in March 2013.
Nearly 3 million have been displaced inside the country, up from 920,000 last year and child refugees have risen from 260,000 a year ago to 1.2 million.
About 425,000 of the refugees are under the age of 5.
In Jordan, one in every five Syrian girls is forced into an early marriage, while one in 10 children is working, according to the UN agency.
Video: Insurgent Offensive Around Khan Shaykhoun
Collection of footage of the recent insurgent offensive which cleared most of the regime checkpoints around Khan Shaykhoun in Idlib Province:
The insurgent success eased the siege on the village and threatened to restrict regime access to its positions and bases further north in Idlib Province.
Prices Rise in Northwest Syria After Closure of Key Border Crossing with Turkey
The Damascus Bureau reports on sharp rises in prices in northwest Syria after the closure of the Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey in mid-January.
The crossing was shut by Turkish authorities after clashes with gunmen in a refugee camp at the crossing and attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and as-Sham.
Residents and merchants of Kafranbel say the cost of chicken rose 30% in the days after the closure of Bab al-Hawa and 50% over the next month. Vendors said Turkish potatoes and tomatoes have not been available, leading to a 33% price rise for Syrian equivalents.
UN: Widespread Malnutrition as Aid Still Restricted
The United Nations World Food Programme has warned of widespread malnutrition as aid delivers are restricted in 12 of Syria’s 14 provinces.
“We don’t have total absolute numbers on deaths due to starvation. There are no massive indications of that. But there are certainly widespread (and) what I would call alarming nutritional indicators,” Amir Abdulla, the WFP’s Deputy Executive Director, said on Monday.
The Syrian regime has claimed that it is allowing more aid amid local ceasefires, for example, near Damascus.
However, Abdulla said the effect was minimal: “There has been a certain degree of increased access. But I stress that sporadic or one-off convoys, whilst providing temporary relief, don’t provide the sort of sustained access and assistance that the people in those areas need.”
Abdulla blamed insurgents as well as Syrian forces in some locations for restrictions: “There are certain groups who basically have stated that they do not want international humanitarian organizations to come into their areas. And in some of those areas, humanitarian workers, basically their lives are under threat, and we’re not able to operate there,”
The WFP said it had delivered rations for the first time in months to 71,500 people in Idlib, Deraa, Deir Ez Zor, and the Damascus countryside. But Abdulla cited areas like Homs and Aleppo where the United Nations was pressing for access.
Raqqa, controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and as-Sham, is also off-limits to the WFP.
Assad Relative and Tycoon Makhlouf Controlling International Aid?
The site Zawan al-Wsl claims that President Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf, one of the wealthiest men in Syria, is controlling much of the international aid in the country.
Zawan al-Wsl asserts that sources and documents show that two companies, part of Makhlouf’s holdings, are primary agents for distribution of aid.
Makhlouf has been sanctioned since 2008 by the US Treasury.
