Syria Sees One Milllion Wounded, Diseases Spreading Rapidly

“One million people have been wounded during Syria’s civil war and diseases are spreading as regular supplies of medicine fail to reach patients,” Reuters reports, citing the World Health Organization.

Syria once had one of the best-developed healthcare systems in the Arab world. But as the war continues, vaccination rates have fallen from a previous high of 90 percent to just 52 percent this year. A collapsed health system, in which over half of public hospitals are out of service, has meant that treatments for diseases are available only sporadically.

Contaminated water has contributed to the spread of diseases like typhoid and hepatitis, with more than 6,500 cases of typhoid reported and 4,200 cases of measles across Syria this year, Reuters reports.

Diseases that were previously unheard of in Syria have now appeared; among them is a disease known as myiasis, which is spread by flies laying eggs in open wounds.

Last Thursday the United Nations issued an appeal for more than $8.4 billion to help nearly 18 million vulnerable people in Syria and across the region.

U.S.-Led Strikes Hit ISIS North of Aleppo; Kurds Push Back ISIS in Kobani

U.S.-led air strikes hit Islamic State targets north of Aleppo on Sunday, AFP reports.

“At least 12 coalition strikes hit [Islamic State] positions and weapons depots in areas that had never been targeted before,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters made headway against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, gaining territory in the Syrian border town of Kobani and closing in on the Sinjar Mountains, AP reports.

According to a Kurdish Democratic Union Party spokesman, Kurdish fighters pushed into six neighborhoods and besieged the ISIS-held cultural center east of Kobani, while capturing the Yarmouk school southeast of Kobani.

“The push in Kobani came a day after YPG fighters opened a corridor between their positions in northeastern Syria and Mount Sinjar in neighboring Iraq where Iraqi peshmerga fighters have been on the offensive as well.”

This weekend the Financial Times reported that morale is down among ISIS ranks, as casualty counts have been rising. The group apparently executed 100 of its foreign fighters “for trying to flee their base in the northern Syrian city of Raqaa,” the paper wrote from Beirut.

In a rare account from the ground, German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer shared perspectives from a 10-day trip to ISIS-held territory in Syria. He told a German news site “that ISIS is much stronger than we think,” that the group is marked by “an almost ecstatic enthusiasm that I have never encountered in any other war zone.”

“Each day, hundreds of willing fighters arrive from all over the world,” he told a German news site. “For me it is incomprehensible.”

Recommended Reads:

• AFP: Twenty Jihadists Killed in Failed Airport Attack
• Al Monitor: E.U. Decision Boosts Russian, U.N. Diplomacy on Syria
• USA Today: Remaining Christians in Syria Fight to Save Their Land
• Al Jazeera: Turkey Builds Upgraded Syria Refugee Camp
• Reuters Exclusive: Iran’s Support For Syria Tested by Oil Drop
• Reuters: One Million People Wounded, Diseases Spreading in Syria: WHO
• NPR: From Syria, Lights Dim as People Flee War
• Wall Street Journal: Inside the Battle for Homs, Syria
• Reuters: Syria Says Israeli Drone Shot Down Near Quneitra