BEIRUT: Syrian regime air strikes and shelling killed 17 civilians including seven children on Friday in the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk in southern Damascus, a Britain-based monitor said.
Regime forces have pounded southern districts of the capital since April 19 to try, as they claimed to expel Daesh group from the area, after the militants refused to leave under an evacuation deal.
That bombardment intensified on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said, as regime forces advanced against Daesh inside the districts.
“Army units backed by the air force and artillery have advanced on numerous axes” in southern Damascus, including the district of Hajjar Al-Aswad, “after breaking through terrorist defenses,” state news agency said.
The advance “inflicted great human and material losses” on the militants, it said.
Syrian state television said the army has seized control of buildings and a “network of trenches and tunnels” from Daesh in Hajjar Al-Aswad.
In the adjacent neighborhood of Qadam, two children were killed in “mortar rounds fired by terrorist groups,” it said.
The Observatory said pro-government forces took control of “buildings and streets in Hajjar Al-Aswad and Qadam after attacking the districts at dawn.”
Regime forces were locked in violent clashes with Daesh fighters on Friday morning, the monitor said.
Heavy air strikes and shelling had targeted Yarmuk and the edges of Hajjar Al-Aswad and Qadam since the early morning.
IS has held parts of Hajjar Al-Aswad and Yarmuk since 2015 and seized Qadam last month.
At least 74 regime personnel and 59 Daesh fighters have been killed in eight days of fighting in southern Damascus, the monitor said.
The latest civilian deaths bring to 36 the number of non-fighters killed in regime bombardment in that same period, it said.
Yarmuk and the surroundings are now Daesh’s largest urban redoubt in Syria or neighboring Iraq.
Syria regime bombardment kills 17 civilians in south Damascus: monitor
Syria regime bombardment kills 17 civilians in south Damascus: monitor
- Regime forces advancing on Daesh pockets close to Damascus
- At least 74 regime personnel and 59 Daesh fighters have been killed in eight days of fighting in southern Damascus, the monitor said.
Sudan paramilitary forces say regret deadly Chad border clash
- The RSF said it respected Chad’s sovereignty and internationally recognized borders and was committed to “continuing ongoing investigations” and “taking the necessary measures” to hold those responsible accountable
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces expressed regret on Monday over what they described as “unintentional” clashes with Chadian troops along the border, after Chad said seven of its soldiers were killed in the incident.
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the RSF said the clashes “resulted from an unintentional mistake during field operations” targeting forces from the Sudanese army who had entered from Chadian territory “to stir discord and then fled back” into Chad.
Sudan has been gripped by conflict since April 2023. Fighting between the army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 11 million.
Around one million Sudanese refugees have fled to Chad, according to the United Nations.
The RSF said it respected Chad’s sovereignty and internationally recognized borders and was committed to “continuing ongoing investigations” and “taking the necessary measures” to hold those responsible accountable.
Chad’s government had earlier blamed the RSF for the violence.
Government spokesman Gassim Cherif told a news conference that armed fighters from Sudan had crossed into Chad on Thursday, prompting a clash when Chadian troops ordered them to leave.
A government official later told AFP that the Sudanese fighters were “RSF elements.”
Sudan’s army has repeatedly accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying weapons to the RSF and hiring mercenaries routed through Chad, Libya, Kenya or Somalia — claims denied by Abu Dhabi.
Border tensions have risen since October, when the RSF seized El-Fasher, the army’s last stronghold in Darfur, prompting international condemnation over reports of mass killings, summary executions and systematic rape.
