Government to Allow Food into Rebel Town in Exchange for Cease-Fire

In what could start to become a trend as starvation sets in in cities across Syria, activists in Moadimiya tell the Washington Post that fighters in the besieged town have agreed to a truce in exchange for much-needed food aid.

“Government forces have laid siege to rebel-held Moadamiya for more than a year, depriving its residents of electricity, food and medicine amid heavy shelling and leaving some to die of starvation,” the paper writes.

“Other residents have subsisted on olives and scavenged leaves for months. This week’s agreement to raise the government flag over the town came after winter storms ravaged the few remaining plants that locals have depended on for sustenance, activists said.

“’We did what they asked because we have a lot of starving civilians in the town,’ said Qusai Zakarya, a spokesman for Moadamiya’s local activist council, who spoke Thursday over an Internet connection that he said was powered by an olive-oil-charged car battery.”

Syria’s War Creates a Market For Artificial Limbs

NPR reports on a new, flourishing market for artificial limbs, created by the thousands of amputees who have lost an arm or leg in the conflict.

“In a clinic in southern Turkey, Mohammed Ibrahim helps 23-year-old Syrian Mustapha Abu Bakr take his first steps since he lost his legs, holding on to a set of bars for balance,” the station says.

“Ibrahim explains that patients who have lost a leg below the knee can walk out of the clinic without crutches after a day of practice. For double amputees like Abu Bakr, who was injured in Syria’s civil war, the adjustment takes more time. Ibrahim, a Jordanian with hospital experience in working with amputees, recently joined the staff of this workshop, which fits wounded Syrians with new prosthetic legs.

“This clinic in Reyhanli, near the Syrian border, has fitted more than 300 patients with artificial limbs. There are more than 600 Syrians on the waiting list, with thousands more still inside Syria who have been handicapped during the war. The staff here say they can produce 50 artificial limbs a month, more when they can raise the funds.”

War Tests Whether Middle East Borders Will Last

Washington Post Beirut bureau chief Liz Sly reports on the durability of borders established by “the secret 1916 accord between Britain and France to divide up the remnants of the collapsing Ottoman Empire,” and whether they are now in jeopardy as the Syrian conflict spills over.

“The result was the creation of nation-states where none had existed before, cutting across family and community ties and laying the foundations for much of the instability that plagues the region to this day,” she writes.

“Less than a century after they were drawn, the durability of those borders — and the nations they formed — is being tested as never before. The war in Syria is spilling into Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Israel, sucking in places that for centuries belonged to a single entity and people whose history, faith and livelihoods transcend the nations in which they were born.”

Growing Concerns Over Syria’s Heritage Sites

The BBC reports on a new center designed to recognize Arab cultural and natural heritage “is beginning its work amid growing concerns about the preservation of historic structures in Syria.”

Those structures include the Crusaders’ castle, Krak des Chavaliers, which was hit by air fire earlier this year.

“The center is maintaining almost daily contact with colleagues in Syria. Mounir Bouchenaki, the center’s Algerian director, says that security concerns make it impossible to visit many sites in Syria, but that earlier this year, the centre arranged an internet link between conservation experts at all six Syrian Unesco sites and relevant international agencies,” the network says.

“‘We have to ensure that they do not feel isolated,’ Mr. Bouchenaki explains, adding: ‘We are continuing those close links from here.’ As these historical structures take on increasing importance in terms of military strategy, experts fear for their future.”

Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team:

NY Times: No Aid in Syrian Town Despite a Deal to Lift Barriers

Al Monitor: Aleppo’s Bloodiest Week

NPR: Syria’s War Creates A Market for Artificial Legs

Washington Post: Syria’s Civil War Tests Whether Borders Drawn Less Than A Century Ago Will Last

Global Post: Christians Face Danger From Jihadists in Syria

Mashable: Cyber War in Syria is Accelerating, Study Says

Daily Beast: Syria’s Sewing Circles

Al Monitor: Defense Minister of  Syria’s Interim Government Calls for More Aid