BEIRUT: Fighting between opposition groups in the biggest insurgent stronghold near the Syrian capital Damascus entered a second day on Saturday, while regime forces pressed an offensive against the besieged enclave, a war monitor said.
The clashes broke out in part of the densely populated rural area east of Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta, which has been besieged by Syrian regime forces since 2013.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented the deaths of at least 38 fighters in the first 24 hours of fighting between opposition groups. It also reported civilian casualties.
Jaish Al-Islam is pitted against the Failaq Al-Rahman group and fighters from an alliance with links to Al-Qaeda, said opposition fighters, activists and the Observatory.
Fighting between the groups killed hundreds of people last April before a cease-fire was agreed in Qatar in May.
The rift was exploited by Syrian regime forces to capture parts of Eastern Ghouta, whose territory shrank by about a third in the second half of last year.
Jaish Al-Islam is one of the biggest Syrian opposition groups and has been the dominant faction in Eastern Ghouta. Its leader, Zahran Alloush, was killed in an airstrike in December 2015.
A Failaq Al-Rahman statement on Friday said Jaish Al-Islam attacked some of its positions and said the factional fighting was not in the interests of Eastern Ghouta or the Syrian revolution.
A statement by Jaish Al-Islam said its dispute was with the group called Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (Liberation of the Levant Committee), which had been obstructing Jaish Al-Islam members from going about their business.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham is an alliance of factions formed in January, whose members include Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, formerly Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front group.
Jaish Al-Islam said it shared the same goals as Failaq Al-Rahman and called on them to contain the crisis.
During the fighting, the regime and allied forces attacked the opposition-held district of Qaboun by land and air.
Syrian opposition fighters attack each other in besieged Damascus enclave
Syrian opposition fighters attack each other in besieged Damascus enclave
Family of Palestinian-American shot dead by Israeli settler demand accountability
- Relatives say Abu Siyam was among about 30 residents from the village of Mukhmas who confronted armed settlers attempting to steal goats from the community
LONDON: The family of a 19-year-old Palestinian-American man reportedly shot dead by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank have demanded accountability, amid mounting scrutiny over a surge in settler violence and a lack of prosecutions.
Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a US citizen born in Philadelphia, was killed near the city of Ramallah on Wednesday, becoming at least the sixth American citizen to die in incidents involving Israeli settlers or soldiers in the territory in the past two years.
Relatives say Abu Siyam was among about 30 residents from the village of Mukhmas who confronted armed settlers attempting to steal goats from the community. Witnesses said that stones were thrown by both sides before settlers opened fire, wounding at least three villagers.
Abu Siyam was struck and later died of his injuries.
Abdulhamid Siyam, the victim’s cousin, said the killing reflected a wider pattern of impunity.
“A young man of 19 shot and killed in cold blood, and no responsibility,” he told the BBC. “Impunity completely.”
The US State Department said that it was aware of the death of a US citizen and was “carefully monitoring the situation,” while the Trump administration said that it stood ready to provide consular assistance.
The Israeli embassy in Washington said the incident was under review and that an operational inquiry “must be completed as soon as possible.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces said troops were deployed to the scene and used “riot dispersal means to restore order,” adding that no IDF gunfire was reported.
The military confirmed that the incident remained under review and said that a continued presence would be maintained in the area to prevent further unrest.
Palestinians and human rights organizations say such reviews rarely lead to criminal accountability, arguing that Israeli authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers accused of violence.
A US embassy spokesperson later said that Washington “condemns this violence,” as international concern continues to grow over conditions in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians and human rights groups say Israeli authorities routinely fail to investigate or prosecute settlers accused of violence against civilians.
Those concerns were echoed this week by the UN, which warned that Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank may amount to ethnic cleansing.
A UN human rights office report on Thursday said that Israeli settlement expansion, settler attacks and military operations have increasingly displaced Palestinian communities, with dozens of villages reportedly emptied since the start of the Gaza war.
The report also criticized Israeli military tactics in the northern West Bank, saying that they resembled warfare and led to mass displacement, while noting abuses by Palestinian security forces, including the use of unnecessary lethal force and the intimidation of critics.
Neither Israel’s foreign ministry nor the Palestinian Authority has commented on the findings.
