Syria: Over 400 Dead During Eid Al Adha
The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon confirmed Monday the failure of the truce of Eid al Adha, which ends Monday in Syria where a suicide car bomb killed at least 10 in Damascus and neighborhoods are bombed by government aircraft. The government of President Bashar al-Assad and key insurgent groups had accepted the truce negotiated by the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, effective Friday, but the violence has quickly taken over.
“I am deeply disappointed that the parties involved have not been able to meet the call for a cessation of hostilities,” said the UN Secretary General in Seoul where he received a peace prize. “This crisis will not be solved by extra force and bloodshed”.
At least 32,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011,
Lakhdar Brahimi himself also regretted that the cease-fire had not been applied and said Monday that the UN did not plan the immediate sending of “peacekeepers” to Syria.
After visiting Moscow on Monday, the UN and the Arab League envoy plans to pay as of Tuesday a two-day visit to China, who called on the Syrian government to negotiate with the insurgents.
Within the opposition, several officials, including members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) began a new round of negotiations to unite organizations still very divided.
On the ground, Syria’s public television on Monday reported that a car bomb attack committed by “terrorists” has left ten dead, including women and children. The blast took place in the southeast of the Syrian capital. The state media also accused the rebels of being behind the breaking of the truce after attacking government troops in Aleppo, and Homs.
In Damascus region, warplanes targeted in the night and morning, the following neighborhoods: Kaboun, Zamalka, Irbin, Barzeh and Harat al Cham, where government forces encountered strong resistance from the insurgents. “Tanks were deployed around Herat al Cham but they were unable to enter. They tried a week ago and they failed,” said an activist living nearby.
The bombings are the most violent since the military government began to use airplanes and helicopters in Damascus some two months ago, according to residents of the capital. A group of activists have also declared that the Syrian air force had bombed farmland near the city of Dair az Zour, in the east.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO based in London and close to the opposition, some 420 people have been killed in Syria since Friday.
