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 by Staff Writers Beirut, Lebanon (AFP) March 23, 2018
Russian air strikes killed 37 civilians in the Arbin area of the shrinking rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday. "Russian air strikes and incendiary weapons killed the civilians in a basement from burning or suffocation" late on Thursday before a ceasefire came into effect in the area, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. Russia has denied being directly involved in air strikes on Eastern Ghouta. The Britain-based Observatory says it relies on flight patterns, aircraft involved and ammunition used to determine who carries them out. The White Helmets, a civil defence organisation operating in rebel-held areas, said most of the dead were women and children. In an image they shared on social media, rescue workers wrapped a blackened body in a blanket. More than 1,600 civilians have died in Eastern Ghouta since the regime launched a blistering assault on the last rebel bastion near Damascus on February 18, the Observatory says. The offensive has retaken most of the enclave and divided what remains into three shrinking pockets, each controlled by a different rebel group. Late on Thursday, the Faylaq al-Rahman group which controls the southern pocket that includes Arbin, said a ceasefire had been agreed from midnight (2200 GMT) to allow negotiations with Russia for an evacuation deal. Under a similar agreement reached by the Ahrar al-Sham group, hundreds of rebel fighters and their family members were evacuated from the town of Harasta earlier on Thursday. The ceasefire announcement came after air strikes killed 38 people in Arbin and Zamalka, another town controlled by Faylaq al-Rahman, earlier on Thursday, the Observatory said.
Russia denies incendiary weapons bombing in Syria Moscow (AFP) March 23, 2018 - Moscow denied Friday it was bombing Syria's Eastern Ghouta with incendiary weapons after war monitors said Russian air strikes killed 37 civilians in the Arbin area of the rebel enclave. "Russian aviation is not striking residential areas of Eastern Ghouta and especially it is not using incendiary weapons, unlike the US-led international coalition," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement. "The statements that swindlers speculating on human grief -- the White Helmets as well as Britain's so-called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights -- are spreading are glaring lies," the statement said, quoted by TASS state news agency. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier Friday that Russian air strikes killed 37 civilians in the Arbin area of the shrinking rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus overnight. "Russian air strikes and incendiary weapons killed the civilians in a basement from burning or suffocation" late on Thursday before a ceasefire came into effect in the area, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. The Britain-based Observatory says it relies on flight patterns, aircraft involved and ammunition used to determine who carries them out. The White Helmets, a civil defence organisation operating in rebel-held areas, said most of the dead were women and children. More than 1,600 civilians have died in Eastern Ghouta since the regime launched a blistering assault on the last rebel bastion near Damascus on February 18, the Observatory says.
'Wagner Group': the mercenaries serving Putin in Syria Moscow (AFP) March 22, 2018 The deaths of several members of the so-called "Wagner Group" in Syria last month shone a light on Russian President Vladimir Putin's mysterious private army Moscow is using there. Questions had already been raised on its role in the Syrian conflict and intensified when Washington said on February 7 it had killed at least 100 pro-regime troops in Deir ez-Zor. After days of silence, Moscow acknowledged five Russian nationals were killed and "dozens" wounded in the attack, saying they all were in ... read more
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