A fief rebels in Syria under the bombs of the plan before a vote at the UN

AFP

AFP

Friday, February 23, 2018 04:56

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Friday, February 23, 2018 04:56

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Douma | The planes of the syrian regime released Friday, for the sixth consecutive day, their bombs on the stronghold of a rebel of the Ghouta eastern, a few hours a vote on a ceasefire at the security Council unable until then to put an end to the carnage.

Since Sunday, 426 civilians, including 98 children, were killed in the air raids and artillery fire, intensive and incessant carried out by the army of president Bashar al-Assad against this vast region near Damascus, had become a “hell on Earth” in the words of the boss of the UN’s Antonio Guterres.

Ignoring international calls to stop the bloodshed, the regime again bombed several towns of the Ghouta eastern besieged, who made Friday, killing nine people, including two children, said the syrian Observatory Human rights (OSDH).

“The toll could be revised upwards,” warned the NGO. “There are many wounded in critical condition and victims under the rubble”.

This air campaign is of a rare intensity, even for a country ravaged since 2011 by a war that has done more than 340,000 dead. It is the prelude to a ground offensive army to retake this region, according to media close to the power and the OSDH.

At Duma, the main town of the fief rebel, few people have ventured Friday into the streets to buy food for their families terrées in the sub-soil, or to inquire about the health of loved ones, according to a correspondent of AFP on the spot.

But in a blink of an eye, they fled in search of shelter after the fall of rockets in the vicinity.

“Crying stones”

Subject to a seat asphyxiant since 2013 by the regime’s forces, the 400,000 inhabitants of Ghouta are already experiencing daily shortages of food and medicines.

With the dead buried and the mouths to feed, they are not very much aware of the details of the negotiations at the UN for a truce.

“The UN is concerned and calls a ceasefire, France condemns, but in the end they have nothing made,” says Abu Mustafa, a resident of Duma, come to accompany the injured to the hospital, questioned by the AFP.

“Daily, there are strikes, destruction, it is to cry the stones, each day there is someone who loses a loved one,” said the man in his fifties.

According to the OSDH, the aviation of the Russian federation, which help militarily the regime in the conflict, participated in strikes on Ghouta. Moscow has denied.

This region is the last stronghold of the rebels located at the gates of Damascus, and the fighters shoot regular shells and rockets into the capital, stronghold of the regime and a symbol of his power.

These bombings, put forward by the regime to justify its military campaign, have made at least 16 dead since Sunday.

The scenario that is taking place today in the Ghouta is reminiscent of what happened in several fiefs rebels, including the city of Aleppo in 2016, crushed by bombardments and a siege takes action to force the fighters antirégime to lay down arms.

Moscow said that it had proposed to the rebels to evacuate the Ghouta, but that they had refused.

“New Aleppo”

Triggered in march 2011 by the suppression of peaceful protests, pro-democracy, the conflict in Syria, which has opposite first the rebels, the regime has become more complex with the involvement of groups jihadists and regional powers and international interests.

After several attempts in vain, the security Council must vote to 16: 00 GMT on a draft resolution calling for a cease-fire of 30 days in the country in a war intended to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid and medical evacuations in the Ghouta orientale. But it is unclear whether Russia, which has veto power, will support this text.

A new version slightly amended the draft resolution negotiated for the past two weeks has been circulated to the members of the Council.

Thursday in New York, the representative of syria to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, reiterated the regime’s determination to regain the territory as a whole, including the Ghouta.

“Yes, the Ghouta east, will become a new Aleppo “, but Aleppo today, “are the millions of people living quite normally,” he said.

Thanks to the Russian military intervention in 2015, the regime that was in poor posture, reversed the gives by multiplying the victories in the face of the rebel groups and jihadists, up to regain control of more than half of the territory.

The United States have denounced the “special responsibility” to Moscow, saying that “without the support provided by Russia to Syria, this destruction and these deaths would not have occurred.”

The UN Vote

The security Council of the UN will vote Friday on a draft resolution calling for a cease-fire of 30 days in Syria, intended to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid and medical evacuations in the Ghouta orientale.

A new version slightly amended the draft resolution negotiated for the past two weeks has been circulated to the members of the Council. The new text be confined to “ask for” a cease-fire, while the previous version used the verb “to decide”. It further specifies that the ceasefire will not apply to “individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with” Al-Qaeda and the group islamic State, whereas the previous version only referred to these two organizations.

It is not known whether Russia, which has veto power in the security Council, will support or not this text. Thursday evening, the Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia had announced that there was “no agreement” between the fifteen members of the Council to impose the cease-fire humanitarian.

The draft resolution is intended to alleviate the siege led by the syrian regime on the Ghouta oriental, to deliver urgent humanitarian assistance (medicines and food) and to conduct medical evacuations in this stronghold in the rebel 400 000 inhabitants in the suburbs of Damascus.

He was proposed on 9 February by Sweden and Kuwait, but the negotiations are stalled.