Activists said that regime forces pounded the district of Daraya west of Damascus with at least 748 barrel bombs during the month of June, killing at least 28 civilians and causing massive destruction in the rebel-held district. The bombardment also destroyed crops crucial to the survival of nearly 8,000 civilians living under suffocating siege by regime forces, now in its 1,300th day.
According to a report published by the local council of Daraya on Tuesday, no fewer than 2,521 people, including 2,226 documented by their full names, have been killed in the Damascus suburb since the outbreak of the revolution in March 2011. The report added that at least 70 civilians from Daraya died under torture in the prisons of the Assad regime, while 2,198 more have been detained by regime forces, including 33 children.
The Assad regime has recently escalated attacks on Daraya with the aim of storming the rebel-held district. To this end, regime forces took control of the farmlands surrounding Daraya, thus depriving what remained of its residents of their only breadbasket.
The latest advances by regime forces on the outskirts of Daraya have forced civilians to flee towards the center of the district, which is a constant target for the regime’s barrel bombs.
Few days ago, Daraya judicial office declared mobilization to repel the regime’s attacks on the district, calling on all military-aged people to take up arms to defend the district against regime forces backed by foreign militias.
Secretary-General of the Syrian Coalition Abdul Ilah Alfahdrenewed on Monday renewed the Coalition’s condemnation of the criminal terrorist acts carried out by the Assad regime backed by the Russian and Iranian invaders. He warned of the regime’s persistent attempts to storm the town of Daraya, applauding the steadfastness shown by the Syrian people in the battle against the Assad regime despite all the crimes committed against them and the sieges to which they have been subjected.
“The crimes committed against civilians in Syria will not go unpunished. Holding perpetrators of these crimes accountable is a duty that cannot be shirked,” Alfahd said. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
