Syria Opposition Calls for Help as Government Attacks Continue on Rebel-Held Suburbs of Damascus

Khaled Khoja, head of Syria’s main opposition-in-exile group the National Coalition, made an appeal to world leaders to take “immediate action” to end government attacks on opposition-held suburbs of Damascus, the Daily Star Reports.

Syrian government airstrikes have targeted the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus for days as part of a military campaign against rebel-held districts east and south of the capital of Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the deaths of at least 146 people, including 29 children, as a result of government airstrikes in Ghouta since the beginning of February. Doctors without Borders said that the bombardment of besieged rebel-held eastern Ghouta pushed hospitals “beyond breaking point.”

Residents of Douma, a town east of Damascus, and other rebel-held districts have said that the strikes are some of the worst they’ve seen, including the use of dozens of barrel bombs, crudely made drums of explosives dropped from helicopters.

Assad’s assault of Douma constitutes as a war crime, Khoja said. “The Assad regime’s killing of children and the elderly with rockets, barrel bombs and toxic gases is a crime as horrible as ISIS’s slaughtering and burning of people alive.”

In an interview earlier this week with the BBC, President Bashar al-Assad denied that his forces were using “barrel bombs,” despite documentation of their continued use against civilians in Syria.

“If we could stop the barrel bomb, it’s hard to think of anything else that would make a greater difference in stopping the slaughter of civilians and destruction of civilian institutions in civilian areas,” Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, told Syria Deeply in an interview last week.

Rebel Commander Vows Guerrilla War Against Hezbollah and Syrian Government Forces

“A Syrian rebel commander in the south vowed to wage guerrilla war against the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Syrian government forces which have launched a major offensive against insurgents in the sensitive border region near Israel and Jordan,” Reuters reports.

The offensive launched this week by regime forces along with Hezbollah fighters focused on an area south of Damascus that is known to be the last notable foothold of the mainstream opposition to President Assad.

Syrian government forces and Hezbollah fighters seized key hilltops and three towns from Free Syrian Army rebels and Jabhat al-Nusra militants. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the offensive is being spearheaded by Hezbollah. “The battle could be lengthy. It will be hit and run: this is the system we are going to use in battle,” said Abu Osama al-Jolani, a senior commander in the southern rebel alliance.

“We are not a state army defending borders … we operate a system of guerrilla warfare. As far as we are concerned, land is not important,” he added, speaking to Reuters.

The battle is being waged a short distance from the Israeli frontier on the Golan Heights, which on January 18 was targeted by an Israeli airstrike that killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general.

“This is a very important test for the Southern Front,” Jolani added. “We ask all the states of the world to help the Syrian people and to help us the way Iran and Russia help the regime.”

Recommended Reads:

• Human Rights Watch: Syria: Campaign to Free Detainees
• Foreign Policy: In Syria, the Enemy of an Enemy Is Still an Enemy
• BBC: Did This Women Really Call IS Fighters ‘Donkeys’?
• ABC: U.S. Officials Admit Concern Over Syria Refugee Effort
• Reuters: Jordan’s Air Force Resumes Raids Against Islamic State

Photo Courtesy of AP Images