At least 40 people killed amid Russian frustration at no capitulation deal in Douma
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UPDATE 1715 GMT: A family is hit by an artillery shell in Douma (Warning — Graphic):
E. #Ghouta: graphic video showing moment when a family got hit by artillery shell in #Duma. https://t.co/pB4qwXPUSh pic.twitter.com/1W2n0p9nO5
— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) April 7, 2018
Regime artillery firing on the town:
E. #Ghouta: rare video showing Regime artillery on Mount overlooking #Damascus pounding town of #Duma, as fierce clashes raging in outskirts. https://t.co/k0p53YqchC pic.twitter.com/0Yn45WDBLd
— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) April 7, 2018
UPDATE 1200 GMT: Bombing of Douma has continued this morning — smoke rises above the town:
Despite the barbaric shelling and direct targeting, @syriacivildefe teams managed to rescue a young man, who was buried under the rubble of his house, after the brutal air raids on #Douma city in #EasternGhouta. pic.twitter.com/kNdN8V5ar6
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) April 7, 2018
Pro-Assad forces, backed by armored vehicels, moving into farmland and orchards near Douma:
Pro-Assad attacks were renewed on Friday on the remaining opposition area in East Ghouta, near Syria’s capital Damascus, killing at least 40 people, including five children.
Residents, rescuers, and activists reported the Assad regime and Russia air and ground assault on Douma, the last opposition-held town. It came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin, with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts, had pledged a commitment to “calm on the ground” in Syria.
The Violations Documentation Center said the fatalities were caused by 70 air raids, 57 barrel bombs, and 500 rockets. State TV broadcast images of thick clouds of smoke rising from Douma, and said pro-Assad forces were pushing in.
Graphic footage has been posted of those who bled to death.
Rescuers assist victims:
At least 32 civilians were killed after Russian warplanes bombed civilian neighbourhoods of #Douma city today. pic.twitter.com/xoFYlEkkBj
— Syrian Revolution (SRLW) (@S_R_L_W) April 6, 2018
The new attacks appeared to show Russian frustration that their talks with Jaish al-Islam, the rebel faction in Douma, had not yet ended in a capitulation deal.
Some people — including the sick, wounded, and members of the Failaq al-Rahman rebel faction and their families — have been removed from Douma to northwest Syria. However, Jaish al-Islam has so far refused a final agreement for their departure and laying down of arms.
Mohammad Alloush, a senior Jaish al-Islam political official, called for talks to halt the latest mass killing of civilians: “The negotiations have ended with failure. As far as Douma is concerned, resolving it militarily is the solution.”
Alloush said Jaish al-Islam wanted to continue negotiations — “We do not want to close a door that could lead to sparing the blood of civilians” — but added, “We are negotiating to remain, for our people to remain…and for that which protects them to remain.”
State TV put out the pretext that the airstrikes had resumed because Jaish al-Islam shelled a crossing between regime and opposition territory. It also said the rebels must release detainees for the assault to end.
Jaish al-Islam spokesman Hamza Biraqdar wrote on his Telegram channel, “Targeting the neighborhoods of Damascus by the Assad militias falls within the framework of justifying the brutal attack on the city of Douma and violating the ceasefire agreed upon in the ongoing negotiations.”
In two months, the pro-Assad offensive — enabled by Russian airstrikes — has killed more than 1,700 people, wounded thousands, and displaced tens of thousands.
Pentagon to Wait Out Trump’s Withdrawal Demand
The Pentagon is continuing its pushback against Donald Trump’s calls for withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria.
The latest signal came on Friday from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who indicated that the Defense Department will wait out the President’s impulsive public statements.
“We’ll work all this out,” Mattis said.
Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff, gave another careful indication that Trump’s statements are being treated as a wish rather the plan: “The President has actually been very good in not giving us a specific timeline, so that’s a tool that we can use to our effect as we move forward.”
Trump has reportedly been talking to aides for weeks about the withdrawal, and he proposed, in a phone call with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, that Riyadh pay $4 billion in return for the US departure. (The Saudis have not responded publicly.)
On March 29, Trump told an audience in Ohio, “We’ll be coming out of Syria like very soon. Let the other people take care of it now.”
The Pentagon responded by leaking to the media that, far from departing Syria, plans are being made for the deployment of dozens more troops.
The jostling continued last Tuesday. Trump told a news conference, “Sometimes it’s time to come back home, and we’re thinking about that very seriously, okay?”, as Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of Central Command, explained to a seminar a few miles away in Washington: “A lot of very good military progress has been made over the last couple of years, but the hard part, I think, is in front of us.”
The Pentagon escaped any immediate difficulty by briefing the press that Trump’s “thinking about that” meant no firm decisions had been taken.
See Syria Daily, April 5: US in Confusion as Trump Announces Withdrawal
Scores dead in Syria gas attack, White Helmets say:,/b> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-43686157
“The pro-opposition Ghouta Media Center tweeted that more than a thousand people had suffered the effects of the alleged gas attack.It blamed a barrel bomb allegedly dropped by a helicopter which it said contained sarin, a toxic nerve agent.”
At least 150 dead in chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria: https://bnonews.com/site/index.php/2018/04/chemical-attack-ghouta-syria/
“The White Helmets, which is a group of rescue volunteers, said a helicopter dropped a barrel bomb containing a chemical agent in the Douma area of Eastern Ghouta. It said entire families suffocated to death inside homes and shelters. The death toll stood at 150 on early Sunday morning and more than 1,000 others have been injured or sickened, according to the White Helmets.”
So now you are going to claim that the rebels in Douma cooked up a ton of sarin liquid in their clean room laboratories, from precursors that they produced themselves, and then built a helicopter to drop the sarin on the rebels their own families?
** and their own families
Dozens reported killed in suspected Syria gas attack, Damascus denies https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-attack/gas-attack-reported-on-syrian-rebel-enclave-damascus-denies-idUSKBN1HE0RR
[Ed.: I’ve corrected this to provide the actual headline of the article.]
Assad continuing to use sarin on children. Time for a massive retaliatory attack on Assad’s palace, and the homes of his death squad commanders. All Iranians bases should be pulverized.