JEDDAH: The world’s silence regarding atrocities committed by Damascus and Moscow is killing Syrians, opposition spokesman Yahya Al-Aridi said Thursday.
He was reacting to reports that at least 30 civilians were killed Thursday when Russian jets bombed a residential area in a besieged opposition-held enclave of Damascus.
“This stain of shame has been on the world’s forehead for seven continuous, painful years,” he told Arab News.
At least four bombs flattened two buildings in the Eastern Ghouta town of Misraba, killing around 20 people and wounding more than 40, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.
Elsewhere in Eastern Ghouta, the last major opposition-held enclave in Damascus, at least 10 people were killed by airstrikes in other towns, rescuers and residents said.
Video footage posted by activists on social media showed rescue workers pulling women and children from rubble.
“If Russia’s actions aren’t war crimes, what can they be called?” said Al-Aridi. “Russia has used its UN Security Council veto 11 times to protect the criminal Assad regime, because Russia itself is perpetrating war crimes in Syria.”
A Syrian opposition delegation “will head to the UN soon” to discuss the issue with the secretary-general and see what the Security Council and the world in general can do about it, Al-Aridi added.
Regime forces on Thursday battled to reach troops trapped in Eastern Ghouta, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
State television said army units had launched an assault to break the siege of the Armoured Vehicle Base, where some 250 soldiers are believed to be cut off.
Opposition: World’s silence is killing Syrians
Opposition: World’s silence is killing Syrians
US announces ‘large-scale’ strikes against Daesh in Syria
WASHINGTON: US and allied forces carried out “large-scale” strikes against the Daesh group in Syria on Saturday in response to an attack last month that left three Americans dead, the US military said.
“The strikes today targeted Daesh throughout Syria” and were part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which was launched “in direct response to the deadly Daesh attack on US and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria” on December 13, US Central Command said in a statement on X.
CENTCOM said the operation was ordered by President Donald Trump following the ambush and is aimed at “root(ing) out Islamic terrorism against our warfighters, prevent(ing) future attacks, and protect(ing) American and partner forces in the region.”
The statement continued: “If you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” adding that US and coalition forces remain “resolute in pursuing terrorists who seek to harm the United States.”
* With AFP
