Syria Bombings of Eastern Ghouta Push Hospitals ‘Beyond Breaking Point’
“The number of patients treated in the hospitals we support has gone beyond breaking point,” said Dr Bart Janssens, director of operations for Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Eastern Ghouta has been under siege for a year and a half and is frequently bombed by government forces. The strikes in the last week have been particularly devastating, and hundreds of wounded people have sought treatment at MSF-supported facilities. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “At least 183 people have been killed in raids in the past 10 days, most of them civilians. Among them were 29 children.”
“One nurse was killed on his way to work in a hospital on February 8,” MSF said, adding that the strikes hit two of its medical facilities on February 5, forcing its patients and staff to evacuate.
The director of an MSF-supported hospital in Eastern Ghouta described the aftermath of a January 23 bombing of a market in the rebel-held town of Hamourieh, that the Observatory claims killed 42 people.
“Our hospital, like the majority of hospitals in the region, lacks basic equipment and medical consumables, and we have limited capacity for this sort of emergency, both in terms of space and beds,” said the medic. “Among the most painful cases for us are the children, when we have to amputate a limb to save their life. Such difficult decisions are a real test for doctors with very limited options,” he added.
“The medical situation, and the general living conditions, are beyond any red lines.”
Syrian Army, Hezbollah Advance in Offensive Against Rebels in South
Syrian government forces and Hezbollah fighters gained ground in a major offensive in southern Syria, seizing key hilltops and villages from Free Syrian Army rebels and Jabhat al-Nusra militants near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Daily Star reports.
“The region is located near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which on January 18 was targeted by an Israeli airstrike that killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general.”
Syrian state news agency SANA said that government forces seized the town of Deir al-Adas and the village of Deir Makar, as well as the nearby areas of Tal al-Arous and Tal al-Sarjeh south of the capital, adding that the gains severed supply and communication lines among “terrorist outposts” in the Damascus countryside, Deraa province and Qunaitra.
The south is one of the few areas where mainstream, non-jihadist rebels have retained a foothold against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Jabhat al-Nusra is also present in the south, which includes territory up to the frontiers with Jordan and Israel.
“Sources on both sides of the southern battlefront said the offensive aimed to shield the capital, Damascus, a short drive to the north. The insurgents had made significant gains in the south in recent months, taking several military bases,” Reuters writes.
“This is the biggest offensive so far,” said Assad Zoubi, a defected Syrian army colonel based in Jordan’s capital, Amman, who is affiliated with the southern front groups. “Their aim is to move towards and recapture the strategic Tel Hara, which the rebels took nearly six months ago,” he told Reuters.
Unprecedented Number of Foreign Fighters Travel to Syria
An unprecedented number of foreign fighters are flocking to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State and other extremist groups, AP reports.
As many as 20,000 fighters from 90 countries, including at least 3,400 from Western nations, are streaming into Syria and Iraq, prompting warnings by U.S. intelligence officials that some of the fighters will launch terrorist attacks once they return home.
Nick Rasmussen, chief of the National Counterterrorism Center, said, “The rate of foreign fighter travel to Syria is without precedent, far exceeding the rate of foreigners who went to wage jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen or Somalia at any other point in the past 20 years.”
Officials have acknowledged that it’s hard to track the Western fighters who have made it to Syria. “Once in Syria, it is very difficult to discern what happens there,” according to Wednesday’s prepared testimony of Michael Steinbach, the FBI’s assistant director for counterterrorism. “This lack of clarity remains troubling.”
The 20,000 estimate is up from the previous estimate of 19,000, and “the number of Americans or U.S. residents who have gone or tried to go is up to 150 from 50 a year ago and 100 in the fall.”
Meanwhile, the White House issued a proposal Tuesday seeking authorization from Congress for the U.S. military to fight Islamic State terrorists over the next three years.
Recommended Reads:
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- Guardian: U.S. Warning as Pro-Assad Hezbollah Fighters Launch Assault on Syrian Rebels
- New York Times: Head of Belgian Group Said to Recruit Fighters for Syria Gets 12-Year Term
- Wall Street Journal: Syria Monument Men Race to Protect Antiquities as Looting Bankrolls Terror
- CNN: ISIS Magazine Claims Hayat Boumedienne is in Syria
- AFP: Syria Bombings Push Hospitals ‘Beyond Breaking Point’: MSF
- Wall Street Journal: Bloodshed Hits Syrian Capital as U.N. Attempts Truce
Photo Courtesy of AP Images