Over 400 Killed in 10-Day Air Blitz of Aleppo
The AFP reports that more than 400 people have died in a 10-day government air blitz of Aleppo, part of President Bashar al-Assad’s push to gain traction in the city ahead of January peace talks in Switzerland.
“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that by Tuesday night the toll since December 15 from air strikes and a bombing campaign using barrels packed with TNT stood at 410. Also among the dead were 34 women, 30 rebel fighters and nine jihadists,” the wire says.
“The Britain-based group said that the air force pressed its assault into an 11th day on Wednesday, with fresh raids on the opposition-held districts of Sakhur and Jabal Badro in eastern Aleppo city. However it had no immediate information on further casualties. Aleppo has been divided into regime and rebel-held enclaves since the opposition launched a massive offensive in July last year.”
Syrian Healthcare System “Going Backwards in Time”
Charlie Cooper reports for the Independent on the destruction of Syria’s once-shining medical care system, which he says is going backwards in time at the rate of a decade a month.
“Three years ago, Syria’s hospitals were the envy of the Middle East. The average life expectancy was 75, higher than in many parts of the UK. Nine out of every 10 medicines provided by the country’s extensive network of public and private clinics were made by the country’s own flourishing pharmaceutical industry. Back then, Syrians could expect a long healthy life, and care and comfort in times of sickness,” Cooper writes.
“Today, when Elizabeth Hoff, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) representative in Syria, walks to her office through the wintry streets of central Damascus, she passes families of refugees shivering in the cold. They have come to the capital for security and because it is one of the few places where the hospitals are still open.”
Syria Signs Oil, Gas Exploration Deal with Russian Firm
The Moscow-Damascus alliance appears to be as strong as ever, with Assad’s government signing a new oil and gas deal that will allow a Russian company to explore Syrian waters.
“The agreement was signed by Syrian Oil Minister Suleiman Abbas, Syria’s General Petroleum Company and the Russian Soyuzneftegaz company. The deal permits the exploration of an area of 2,190 square kilometres (850 square miles) in the Mediterranean off the Syrian coast,” reports the AFP’s Damascus bureau.
The contract “is the first ever for oil and gas exploration in Syria’s waters,” Syrian General Petroleum Company head and Oil Minister Ali Abbas told the wire. “It will be financed by Russia, and should oil and gas be discovered in commercial quantities, Moscow will recover the exploration costs.”
During the signing ceremony, he added that the contract covers “25 years, over several phases,” and that “the cost of exploration and discovery is $100 million.”
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