BEIRUT: Syrian regime air strikes on Eastern Ghouta killed at least 16 civilians on Tuesday, a monitor said, the latest in a string of deadly attacks on the rebel-held enclave near Damascus.
“There were 16 killed, two of them children, in intensive air raids carried out by the regime against several regions of Eastern Ghouta,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“The casualty toll could rise because there are people stuck under the rubble and several wounded in a critical condition,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based group, said.
The latest bloodshed came a day after strikes and shelling killed at least 31 civilians in the area, which has been besieged by government forces since 2013.
Several children were among Monday’s dead.
The raids also came after a heated exchange between the United States and Russia at the United Nations over the reported use of chemical weapons by President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Regime or allied forces have fired suspected chlorine-filled munitions on targets in Eastern Ghouta on several occasions in recent weeks, sparking US warnings of military action.
Russia, Assad’s main backer, retorted that “no perpetrators have been identified” and accused the United States of orchestrating a “propaganda campaign” against the Syrian government.
Regime and allies continue to pound Damascus's Ghouta a day after gas attacks
Regime and allies continue to pound Damascus's Ghouta a day after gas attacks
20 Palestinian families abandon homes near Jericho after repeated attacks by settlers
- The families belong to Az-Zayed clan, one of the few remaining Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley
LONDON: Repeated attacks by Israeli settlers have forced 20 Palestinian families to leave their homes in the Shallal Al-Auja community north of Jericho and move to another area, Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights said on Tuesday.
The families belong to Az-Zayed clan, one of the few remaining Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley, the organization said. Their way of life is under threat as a result of settler policies, as well as limited access to water and land, it added.
The clan has faced an increase in attacks by settlers in recent months, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported, including threats, denial of access to pastures, and vandalism of properties.
Al-Baidar said that actions of the settlers “were an integral part of a structured scheme to displace indigenous Palestinians from the Jordan Valley and take over their land to make room for colonial settlement construction.”
Excluding East Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, there are about 3 million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank.
