Outgoing U.N. Aid Chief Makes Final Appeal to End Syria Carnage

The outgoing U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos has painted a harrowing picture of savagery in Syria’s conflict, urging the Security Council to take collective action to put an end to the carnage, Agence France-Presse reports.

“For more than four years, we have watched Syria descend into deeper depths of despair, surpassing what even the most pessimistic observers thought possible,” Baroness Amos said in her final briefing to the Security Council.

Amos warned that the situation in Syria was “extremely grave and deteriorating by the day,” citing an aerial bombing of a market in Darkoush, in rural Idlib, at the end of April in which up to 50 people were killed and over 100 civilians wounded.

“In the past weeks, we have seen more and more heinous acts. Innocent men, women and children killed, maimed, displaced and subjected to a savagery that no human should have to endure,” she said.

“At the same time, the violent rampaging of militants aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) continues to cause widespread devastation,” she added.

The death toll from the war has surpassed 220,000. More than 12.2 million people, including 5.6 million children, are in urgent need of aid. Over 7.6 million people have been displaced and over 4 million have fled to neighboring countries but the Security Council has remained deadlocked over how to address the conflict despite three resolutions adopted last year.

“For the sake of Syria and its future generations, this council must set aside its political differences and come together to find a solution to what appear to be intractable problems,” Amos urged.

“I know that there are no easy answers or quick fixes,” she told the 15-member council.

Amos said warring sides have “ignored practically all aspects” of a February 2014 Security Council resolution authorizing cross-border aid access to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid, and accused the government of introducing new regulations that caused delays in delivery of urgently needed aid.

“We cannot leave Syrians abandoned to hopelessness and further despair,” she concluded.

Syrian Rebels Seize One of the Last Government Strongholds in Idlib

Jaysh al-Fatah, an Islamist coalition that includes Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al Sham, has captured one of the last government strongholds in western Idlib province, the BBC reports.

The rebel coalition took control of the city of Ariha after a “lightning” offensive, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. However, the Syrian army said intense fighting was still going on with Jabhat al-Nusra forces that it claims infiltrated the city. Later the army admitted that its forces had pulled back from the city, in the latest string of defeats by the Syrian army against rebel forces. Since late March, Jabhat al-Nusra alongside other rebel groups have made significant gains in northwestern Syria, including the provincial capital of Idlib and Jisr al-Shughour.

The loss of Ariha would leave rebels in control of most of Idlib, a region that borders Turkey and is also next to Latakia, President Assad’s heartland in Latakia province on the coast.

Syria has accused Turkey of financing and aiding rebels seeking to oust the government and said that foreign jihadi fighters allowed into Syrian territory through Turkey’s porous border have played an instrumental role in recent rebel gains.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Al Jazeera, the leader of al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria said his group was focused on capturing the Syrian capital of Damascus and ousting the regime, and that it would not use Syria as a launching pad to coordinate attacks against the West. “We will continue our focus on Damascus and on toppling this regime,” Jabhat al-Nusra’s Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said.

“Our mission in Syria is the downfall of the regime, its symbols, and its allies, like Hezbollah.”

Recommended Reads

• The Wall Street Journal: Al-Qaida’s Syrian Arm Shifts Tactics in War
• The Guardian: Khorasan: Are Syria’s Mysterious ‘Strangers with Horses’ a Threat to the West?
• Associated Press: Female Jihadis in Syria Find Themselves Unable to Return to Their Home Countries
• BBC: Syrian Islamist Rebels ‘Seize Ariha in Idlib Province’
• Associated Press: Kurdish Fighters in Syria on the March Against ISIS Militants
• Associated Press: EU Extends Syria Sanctions by 1 Year Over Rights Abuses