Articles by "Syria"
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Hello Jammu News at 12:57:00 PM 0

Beirut, Aug 10: Syria's civil registries recorded 68,000 deaths in the war-torn country in 2017, pro-regime daily Al-Watan reported its head as saying yesterday.

"Last year, we confirmed 68,000 without specifying the nature of their death and 32,000 this year," civil registries chief Ahmad Rahal said.

He did not provide any additional details about those who had died, including in what part of Syria they had lost their lives or whether they had been victims of the ongoing conflict.

The news come after activists accused authorities of quietly updating civil records to mark detainees in regime jails as "deceased" -- some backdated by several years.

Human rights defenders say tens of thousands of Syrians are held in government jails across the country.

Relatives and advocates say they are often tortured, denied a fair trial, and deprived of contact with their families. But Rahal said employees at the civil record did not have a "missing" box to tick.

"If a document comes through from any government body -- whether a hospital or another -- to confirm a death, it is confirmed without specifying if they were missing or not."

The Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented around 400 cases in recent months, including those of nine children, where civil registry employees have told family members that their detained relative has died.

There could be further such instances which are yet to be documented.

Around 80,000 remain forcibly disappeared by the government, the rights group says.

More than 3,50,000 people have been killed since Syria's civil war started in 2011, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor says.

More than 33,000 were killed last year alone, including more than 10,000 civilians and 7,000 pro-regime fighters, it says.

During the first seven months of this year, at least 14,000 people lost their lives among them more than 5,000 civilians and 7,000 soldiers and loyalists. (AFP)
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Hello Jammu News at 1:01:00 PM 0

Beirut, Jul 25: At least 32 people including several civilians have died in a string of Islamic State group suicide attacks against a regime-held area of southern Syria, a war monitor said today.

"Three bombers with explosive belts targeted Sweida city alone, while the other blasts hit villages to the north and east," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said the jihadists then followed up with further attacks in the province. (AFP)
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Hello Jammu News at 1:52:00 PM 0



Damascus, Apr 9: Several people have died or were hurt after a Syrian military airport was hit by missiles, state media said, amid international alarm over a suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town.
Monday's attack hit the Tiyas airbase, known as T4, near the city of Homs.
Syria initially said the West was involved. The US and France threatened to respond to the alleged chemical attack, but deny striking the base, according to a BBC News report.
Israel has previously hit Syrian targets. It has not commented.
US President Donald Trump said there would be a "big price to pay" after the chemical attack in Douma, in the Eastern Ghouta region, near the capital, Damascus.
Meanwhile the last rebel fighters in Douma have surrendered and are being bussed out of the enclave after reaching a deal with the government.
Mr Trump and France's President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement on Sunday vowing to "co-ordinate a strong, joint response" to the alleged attack.
But US officials said it did not launch a missile attack.
"At this time, the Department of Defense is not conducting air strikes in Syria," the Pentagon said in a statement.
"However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable."
France also issued a denial.
Syria's state news agency Sana initially called the reported missile strike on the Tiyas airfield a "suspected US attack," but later dropped the reference to the US.
In April 2017, the US fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syria's Shayrat military airfield in response to a chemical weapons attack on a different rebel-held town, Khan Sheikhoun.
We've been here before. Almost exactly a year ago, the same horrific images of children choking to death, and President Trump insisting this could not be allowed to stand unanswered.
Then, within days the US military fired cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield where the sarin attack had been launched from. So when Donald Trump says there will be a price to pay, it is no empty threat.
But this time round, the Russians are warning of dire consequences if the West uses this alleged chemical weapon attack as a pretext to intervene in Syria.
Over the weekend the president's senior national security advisers have been meeting to consider what would be the appropriate response, and Mr Trump has been rallying international support.
Last night he spoke to President Macron of France where the two agreed there should be a strong, coordinated response.
A week ago President Trump said he wanted to pull American troops out of Syria, but he now might be on the brink of ordering a military response, that could drag the US deeper still into this intractable conflict.
Israel also carried out major strikes on Syrian targets earlier this year.
Targets were struck in response to an incursion by an Iranian drone into Israel, and more strikes followed the shooting down of an Israeli F16 fighter jet in the first round of strikes.
The Israeli military said Iran and its Revolutionary Guards had long been active in the Tiyas base, and were using it to transfer weapons, including to Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah which is hostile to Israel and allied to Syrian troops.
They also said the drone had been launched from the base.
Israel has not yet commented on Monday's Tiyas attack, but Hezbollah's al-Manar TV described the attack as an "Israeli aggression".
Monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that fighters of various nationalities were among the dead at the base, meaning Iranians or members of Iranian-backed Shia militias.
What happened in Douma?
Medical sources say dozens of people were killed on Saturday in the attack on Douma, in the Eastern Ghouta region.
One video, recorded by rescue workers known as the White Helmets, shows a number of men, women and children lying lifeless inside a house, many with foam at their mouths.
However, it has not been possible to verify independently what actually happened, or the actual number of dead.
The UN Security Council is expected to discuss the crisis on Monday.
Both Syria and Russia deny a chemical attack took place, and have reached an evacuation deal with the Jaish al-Islam rebels who hold Douma.
Moscow said military operations there had been halted. Under the deal, 100 buses are said to be moving 8,000 fighters and 40,000 of their relatives out of the battered town. Hostages who had been held by the rebels are being set free.
The development means pro-government forces have now taken full control of Eastern Ghouta.
Analysts say this is President Assad's biggest military success since the fall of Aleppo in 2016. It follows a weeks-long government offensive in which more than 1,600 people were killed. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 1:55:00 PM 0


United Nations, Mar 10: After seven years of brutal conflict in Syria, there are no clear winners, “but the losers are plain to see,” the United Nations refugee agency chief has said, describing the “colossal human tragedy” that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, driven 6.1-mn people from their homes and forced 5.6 million others to seek safety in neighbouring countries.
“This seven-year war has left a colossal human tragedy in its wake. For the sake of the living, it is high time to end this devastating conflict,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi underscored.
The conflict – which broke in the wake of massive anti- and pro-Government street protests across the country in 2011 – reaches “a depressing anniversary” this month.
The High Commissioner painted a grim picture of the relentless suffering of Syrian civilians and denounced the ongoing brutality as a shameful failure of political will and a new low in Syria’s long-running conflict.
“There are no clear winners in this senseless pursuit of a military solution. But the losers are plain to see – they are the people of Syria,” he added.
With 69 per cent of civilians inside the country languishing in extreme poverty, conditions are worse than ever. Ninety per cent of families now spend more than half their annual income on food as prices are, on average, eight times higher than pre-crisis levels.
Moreover, some 5.6 million people lack security or basic rights and require humanitarian assistance.
While UNHCR and other humanitarian actors are making every effort to bring relief to hundreds of thousands of people in dire need inside Eastern Ghouta and other besieged parts of the country, access to these populations remains woefully inadequate.
On 5 March, a humanitarian convoy delivering aid to besieged Eastern Ghouta was cut short amidst ongoing shelling and subsequent attempts have been thwarted.
In December 2015, a mother loads preserved food supplies in a truck as the family prepares to move out of Nashabieh village to a neighbouring safer town within besieged East Ghouta, Syria. Almost 400,000 people are trapped in besieged locations.
In December 2015, a mother loads preserved food supplies in a truck as the family prepares to move out of Nashabieh village to a neighbouring safer town within besieged East Ghouta, Syria. Almost 400,000 people are trapped in besieged locations.
“Humanitarian access to those in need must be guaranteed. People must be allowed to leave to seek refuge and civilians and civilian infrastructure including hospitals and schools must be protected at all costs,” Mr Grandi maintained.
Meanwhile, the hopes of millions of Syrian refugees living in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq who dream of returning home when conditions are safe are being dashed.
“With fighting in parts of Syria as fierce as at any point during the conflict, refugees are understandably still too frightened to return,” Mr Grandi continued, noting that UNHCR is preparing to assist in returns for when the security situation improves.
As conditions for millions of Syrians in exile grow more desperate, the vast majority live below the poverty line and more than three-quarters sheltering in Jordan and Lebanon are unable to meet their basic food, shelter, health or education needs.
Although host countries lay on second shifts to accommodate the refugees, 43 per cent of 1.7 million school-aged Syrian are out of school.
“While the focus is on the devastation inside Syria, we should not forget the impact on the host communities in the neighbouring countries and the effect that so many years of exile has had on refugees,” Mr Grandi reminded.
Turning to an upcoming international conference in Brussels on supporting the future of Syria and the region, he asserted that it must result in a boost of financial and development assistance.
“As long as there is no political solution to the conflict, the international community must step up its investment in the host countries,” the High Commissioner concluded. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 12:23:00 PM 0


United Nations, Feb 22: The UN Secretary General has demanded an immediate end to fighting in the Eastern Ghouta in Syria, describing the rebel enclave as a "hell on earth".
"I believe Eastern Ghouta cannot wait," Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
The Eastern Ghouta has been under fierce bombardment from government forces backed by Russian airpower in recent days.
The region is the last major rebel-held area near the capital Damascus.
The Syrian military says it is trying to liberate the area from what it terms terrorists - but it has also been accused of targeting civilians.
"This is a human tragedy that is unfolding in front of our eyes and I don't think we can let things go on happening in this horrendous way," Mr Guterres said.
He said an end to the fighting would allow the evacuation of hundreds of people who require urgent treatment as well as allowing humanitarian aid to reach the region.
A draft UN Security Council resolution, proposed by Kuwait and Sweden, is calling for a 30-day ceasefire, but the BBC's UN Correspondent Nick Bryant says Russia may not allow it to pass.
Russia says it wants an urgent Security Council meeting to discuss the situation, but western diplomats view this as a delaying tactic to give the Syrian military more time to continue its offensive, our correspondent says.
Moscow, which supports the Syrian Government, said peace talks with the rebels had failed on Wednesday.
Meanwhile Iran, another Syrian government ally, says it is in close contact with Syria, Russia and Turkey to try to reduce tension in the Eastern Ghouta.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the BBC's Lyse Doucet that Iran believed in a political solution to the conflict, not a military one.
UN human rights commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein has also joined calls for an end to the conflict in the region.
"How much cruelty will it take before the international community can... take resolute, concerted action to bring this monstrous campaign of annihilation to an end?" he said in a statement.
How bad is the situation in the Eastern Ghouta?
Pro-government forces, backed by Russia, intensified their efforts to retake the last major rebel stronghold on Sunday night.
A doctor working in the region says the situation is "catastrophic" - and he believes the international community has abandoned the people living there.
"They targeted everything: shops, markets, hospitals, schools, mosques, everything," Dr Bassam told the BBC on Wednesday. UNI
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