The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Syrian crisis

  • Thousands flee Syrian rebel enclave

    Thousands of civilians are fleeing a town in the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region outside Syria’s capital, Damascus, as government forces advance.

    State television showed pictures of men, women and children carrying bags leaving the town of Hamouria, which has come under intense bombardment.

    The BBC reports that it is the biggest exodus from the enclave since the military stepped up an offensive to retake it last month.

    At the same time, 25 lorries carrying food aid entered the town of Douma.

    The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the aid was just a fraction of what was needed in the Eastern Ghouta, where some 390,000 people are facing severe shortages of food and medical supplies.

    The developments came just as Syria’s civil war, which ICRC president Peter Maurer said had “extracted an immensely painful human toll,” entered its eighth year.

    The conflict has left more than 350,000 people dead, 1.5 million others with permanent disabilities, and displaced 11 million both inside Syria and abroad.

  • EU foreign ministers met over Syria, Israeli-Palestinian conflict

    EU foreign ministers met over Syria, Israeli-Palestinian conflict

    The Foreign Ministers of the European Union member states, began talks on Monday, on the Syrian crisis and the stalled Middle East peace process.

    The meeting holds one day after diplomats from nearly 70 countries met in Paris and issued a call to Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct negotiations, a week before Syrian peace talks in the Kazakhstan capital, Astana.

    The Paris meeting, which is meant to show a global support for a two-state solution, was harshly criticised by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

    The EU’s discussions come as Turkey and Russia appear to have assumed a leading role in finding a political solution to the conflict.

    The two countries brokered a nationwide ceasefire in December and are planning to host peace talks between representatives of the Syrian Government and the opposition in Astana on January 23.

    The German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said before the EU meeting: “We need to talk about the role that Europe will play in the forthcoming process.

    “We also urge that the negotiations on the future of Syria be returned to the hands of the United Nations”.

  • Syrian rebels threaten to boycott peace talks

    Syrian rebel groups said they are suspending participation in the preparations for peace talks planned by Russia and Turkey for later this month.

    A statement, signed by a number of groups, cited “many and large violations” of the ceasefire by the Syrian government as the reason.

    Turkey and Russia brokered the ceasefire deal last Thursday, and it has mostly held since then, the BBC reports.

    The peace talks are due to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan.

    “The regime and its allies have continued firing and committed many and large violations,” the BBC quoted the rebels group as saying in a statement issued on Monday.

    “As these violations are continuing, the rebel factions announce the freezing of all discussion linked to the Astana negotiations.”

    The groups highlighted fighting in the rebel-held region of Wadi Barada, north-west of Damascus, which they said has been subjected to almost-daily bombing raids and bombardment by Syrian forces and their Hezbollah allies.

    The area does not fall under the ceasefire agreement, given the presence of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS), a jihadist group which was excluded from the deal.

     

  • Rebel evacuation from Aleppo delayed

    The planned evacuation of rebel fighters and civilians from devastated eastern Aleppo has been delayed.

    The Syrian government is said to be demanding the evacuation of its injured fighters and civilians from nearby towns encircled by opposition forces, the BBC reports.

    A ceasefire was declared in Aleppo on Tuesday and held overnight, but fresh shelling was reported on Wednesday.

    Russia’s foreign minister said he expected rebel resistance to continue for “the next two to three days.”

    Activists and civilians told the BBC parts of eastern Aleppo were shelled on Wednesday morning.

    Ibrahim Abu-Laith, a spokesman for the White Helmets volunteer rescue group, said more than 40 people were injured.

    Russia – Syria’s ally – said the Syrian army resumed firing after the rebels broke the truce.

    Eastern Aleppo has been held by the rebels since 2012. But the rebels had been squeezed into ever smaller areas of the city in recent months by a major government offensive, backed by Russian air power.

    Late on Tuesday, Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, told an emergency session of the UN Security Council: “According to the latest information that we received in the last hour, military actions in eastern Aleppo are over.”

    Under the evacuation deal, brokered by Turkey and Russia, civilians and rebels from eastern Aleppo are to be evacuated to rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

     

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  • Syrian cave hospital heavily damaged by air strikes

    Syrian cave hospital heavily damaged by air strikes

    The “Dr. Hasan Al-Araj” or “Cave Hospital,” in rural Hama, was heavily damaged by two waves or air strikes.
    The facility, supported by UOSSM and other NGOs, is a hospital built inside a cave 50 feet (17 meters) deep inside a mountain.
    Extensive damage was reported to the emergency room and other parts of the hospital resulting in its closure. No casualties were reported and only minor injuries. All medical staff and equipment have been evacuated from the building. The hospital services the rural Hama area and performs at least 150 surgeries per month and at least 40-50 intensive care cases per month.
    Extensive damage was reported to the emergency room and other parts of the hospital resulting in its closure. No casualties were reported and only minor injuries. All medical staff and equipment have been evacuated from the building. The hospital services the rural Hama area and performs at least 150 surgeries per month and at least 40-50 intensive care cases per month.
    The hospital was named in honour of Dr. Hasan Al-Araj who was killed at the doorsteps of the building. Dr. Hasan Al-Araj was in Geneva on December 2015, where he called on the world’s doctors to stand for the protection of hospitals and health workers in Syria. “I am really happy we could start work in this hospital, it is my baby, I worked on it for 13 months,” Said Dr. Al-Araj in Geneva before his passing.
    “It is suspected that the hospital was targeted by “bunker buster” missiles as the hospital was well fortified in a cave and impervious to previous attacks, the bomb caused complete destruction of the emergency department and major destruction throughout the hospital.”- Said Dr. Abdallah D, Director of the Hospital and head of the Healthcare Directorate in Hama.
    The attack comes one day after the M10 hospital in Aleppo was completely destroyed after being directly targeted for the third time in a week, and three other hospitals in Aleppo were put out of service.
    For the protection of our patients and staff and for the spirit of justice and humanity, UOSSM calls for the immediate investigation and enforcement of the international humanitarian law. Laws which are supposed to protect aid workers. It is incomprehensible that no action has been taken so far with years of data on attacks on aid workers. Laws cannot be just or taken seriously if only applied when convenient.
    UOSSM remains committed to our patients and serving those in need irrespective of the dangers. We greatly appreciate donations to help us rebuild the Dr. Hasan Al-Araj medical center.

  • U.S accuses Russia of ‘barbarism’ in Syrian city

    The United States ambassador to the United Nations has accused Russia of “barbarism” over the bombing of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

    At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Samantha Power said Russia had told the council outright lies about its conduct in Syria.

    She said Russia and the Syrian regime were “laying waste to what is left of an iconic Middle Eastern city.”

    Russia said Syrian forces were trying to remove terrorists from Aleppo while harming as few citizens as possible.

    Ambassador Vitaly Churkin did not say Russian forces were involved.

    But he said that bringing peace to Syria was “almost an impossible task now.”

    He also accused opposition armed groups of sabotaging the ceasefire.

    The BBC reports that the northern city of Aleppo has become a key battleground in Syria’s bloody five-year civil war.

    Save the Children said on Sunday that humanitarian workers on the ground reported that approximately half of the casualties pulled from the rubble were children.

    One hospital told the charity that 43 per cent of the injured they treated on Saturday were children, and a Syrian ambulance crew said more than 50 per cent they picked up in the past 48 hours were children.

  • Syria: France urges Russia to stop civilians’ bombing

    French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, has called on Russia to stop hitting civilians in air raids in Syria.

    Mr. Valls said an end to bombing civilians was the key to peace.

    His Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev said there was “no evidence of our bombing civilians, even though everyone is accusing us of this.”

    Late last month, the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 1,015 civilians had been killed in Russian air strikes, the BBC reports.

    Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has consistently denied hitting civilian targets and insists it is battling terrorists.

    Mr. Valls said his government “respects Russia and Russia’s interests” but “that to re-discover the path to peace, to discussion, the Russian bombing of civilians has to stop.”

    Mr. Medvedev said Russia was “not trying to achieve some secret goals in Syria,” adding that “we are trying to protect our national interests.”

    The comments were made at a security conference in Munich, days after world powers agreed a deal to push for a cessation of hostilities in Syria within a week.

    Rebel groups in Syria have told the BBC they would not stop fighting because they do not believe that Russia will end its bombing campaign in support of the government.

    They also reiterated their demand that President Assad be removed from power. On Friday, the president said he wanted to retake “the whole country” from rebels.

  • Another 16 die in Syrian town

    Another 16 people have starved to death in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya since United Nations aid convoys reached it earlier this month, according to charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.

    The charity said there are also 33 people in danger of dying.

    Brice de la Vingne, MSF operations director, said the situation was “totally unacceptable” when people “should have been evacuated weeks ago.”

    MSF previously said 30 people died of starvation in the town late last year.

    Earlier in January, two emergency convoys of food and aid supplies were delivered to Madaya, where up to 40,000 people are believed to be trapped in appalling conditions, the BBC reports.

    The report comes as talks on ending the Syrian conflict take place in Geneva.

     

  • US rights report focuses on Syria

    A global human rights report released by the United States has singled out Syria’s civil war as a tragedy that “stands apart in its scope and human cost.”

    The US said a chemical weapons attack in Syria that it says killed 1,429 was “one of many horrors” in the war.

    The BBC reports that the annual state department review also noted the increased crackdown elsewhere on protesters and civil society groups.

    The report cited official persecution of dissidents in Ukraine, Venezuela, Turkey and China in 2013.

    The review known as the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices includes indictments of countries in every corner of the world.

    But it saved its harshest condemnation for the government of Syria, where well over 100,000 people have been killed and millions more forced to flee since March 2011.

    It cited the August 21, 2013 chemical weapons attack on Ghouta, an agricultural belt around Damascus, as one of “many horrors in a civil war filled with countless crimes against humanity, from the torture and murder of prisoners to the targeting of civilians with barrel bombs and Scud missiles.”

    In remarks after the release of the report on Thursday, Secretary of State, John Kerry, also condemned the government of Ukraine for the recent violence against protesters.

    “In Ukraine, as we all just saw in real time in the last days, tens of thousands took to the streets… to demonstrate again the power of people to be able to demand a more democratic and accountable governance, and to stand up even against those who would sniper from roofs and take their lives in the effort to have their voices heard,” Mr. Kerry told reporters.

    Mr. Kerry described Ukraine as one example of a nation in which public backlash against corruption and overbearing governments has been further inflamed by official violence.

    Ukraine’s ex-President, Viktor Yanukovych, has fled the capital after months of unrest.

    The report criticises Mr. Yanukovych’s government for parliamentary elections that did not meet international standards for fairness or transparency, security forces beating protesters during a peaceful November 30 demonstration, and a general crackdown on the country’s news media.

     

  • UN invites Iran to Syria peace talks

    United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has invited Iran to take part in preliminary Syrian peace talks this week in Switzerland, an offer Tehran has accepted.

    Mr. Ban said he had received assurances that Iran would play a positive role in securing a transitional government.

    But Syria’s main opposition group said it would withdraw from the talks unless Mr. Ban retracted the offer to Iran.

    And the United States said the offer must be conditional on Iran’s support for the 2012 deal on Syria’s transition.

    The Syria peace conference has been more than a year in the making and now it is in disarray before it’s even started, the BBC reports.

    The UN move appeared to take American officials by surprise, the report says.

    Ban Ki-moon said Iran “needs to be part of the solution to the Syria crisis.”

    Preliminary talks are due to open in Montreux on Wednesday and then continue in Geneva two days later.

    Syria’s government earlier agreed to attend the meeting.

    The three-year conflict in Syria has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people.

    An estimated two million people have fled the country and some 6.5 million have been internally displaced.