Continued Fighting in Eastern Ghouta Undermines Russian-Backed Humanitarian Pause
Government attacks on the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus killed seven people on Tuesday, violating a five-hour humanitarian pause ordered by Russia, Agence France-Presse reported.
The Russian-backed truce, which went into effect on early Tuesday, was meant to facilitate the delivery of aid and the evacuation of civilians, who have been trapped in the besieged suburbs since Damascus and Russia stepped up attacks on the region earlier this month.
The Syrian government had deployed buses to the al-Wafideen crossing point, near the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Douma, on Tuesday, to allow residents to evacuate through a so-called humanitarian corridor established with help from Russia.
But continued shelling prevented assistance from reaching the region and as of late Tuesday, no civilians had been seen leaving the enclave. Damascus and Moscow accused rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta of shelling the humanitarian corridor to prevent civilians from leaving, but the rebels denied such claims.
There are roughly 400,000 people trapped in the besieged suburbs east of the capital. Escalated attacks on the region have killed more than 500 people since February 18. The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria on Saturday, but the agreement has yet to take hold on the ground.
U.N. Report: North Korea Supplying Syria’s Chemical Weapon Factories
A leaked United Nations report has found North Korea responsible for supplying Syria with equipment that could be used to develop chemical weapons, the BBC reported on Wednesday.
The unreleased report, seen by the BBC, claims that 40 shipments of supplies, including high-heat, acid-resistant tiles, corrosion-resistant valves and thermometers, were made between 2012 and 2017.
According to the BBC, it is believed the tiles could be used to set up facilities where chemical weapons are produced.
North Korean missile specialists were also seen in weapon-making centers in Syria, the BBC said, citing the report.
The latest findings come months after the U.N.’s Panel of Experts said in September that it was “investigating reported prohibited chemical, ballistic missile and conventional arms cooperation” between Syria and North Korea.
It also comes after activists and medics in Eastern Ghouta on Sunday accused the Syrian government of targeting the besieged enclave with chlorine gas.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has opened an investigation into the reported attack on the rebel enclave to determine whether chemical weapons were used, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Coalition Strikes Kill More Than 20 in Eastern Syria
Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition killed at least 24 people in eastern Syria on Tuesday, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported.
The strikes reportedly targeted a gathering of internally displaced persons in the Dhahret al-Allouni region of Deir Ezzor province, which is near the border with Iraq.
The attack comes two days after a separate coalition airstrike killed some 29 people in the same area.
The U.S.-led coalition and its Kurdish partners, the Syrian Democratic Forces, are battling the last remnants of the so-called Islamic State in areas east of the Euphrates river in Deir Ezzor.
Last week, SANA claimed that coalition warplanes carried out two separate attacks in Deir Ezzor province within 48 hours, killing around 28 people.
Recommended Reads:
- The Associated Press: Thousands of Well-Armed Rebel Fighters Are in Syria’s Ghouta
- The Guardian: Syria Is a Moral Defeat for Europeans
- The Wall Street Journal: In Syria, a Russian Ex-Commando Dies in the Shadows
- The Atlantic: Defeating ISIS in Syria Is Just the Beginning
- The Telegraph: Vladimir Putin’s Bloody Adventure in Syria Will Give Him No Lasting Victory