23 February 2018•Update: 23 February 2018
By Suhib Mohammad Abed and Muhammed Shekh Yusuf
ISTANBUL
The Syrian National Coalition on Friday urged the UN to take action to end the Bashar Assad regime’s massacres in Eastern Ghouta.
“We call on the UN to immediately halt the systematic genocide in Eastern Ghouta by the Assad regime, Iranian-backed militias, and Russia,” Selva Aksoy, deputy chair of the Syrian Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SMDK), told reporters.
“During attacks by Iranian-backed militias and the Assad regime, more than 2,000 civilians have died and nearly 5,000 were injured over the last three months,” she said.
“Eastern Ghouta has been subjected to a violent assault for the last six years. More than 23,000 civilians have been killed in Eastern Ghouta since 2012, over 32 hospitals and health centers have been destroyed, and 1.7 million civilians have been displaced,” Aksoy said.
“The number of deaths in the last three days exceeded 300. So we urge the UN to take more responsibility and action to fulfill its mission,” Aksoy added.
U.S. President Donald Trump called Russian, Iranian and Syrian regime actions "a humanitarian disgrace", but stressed Washington is in Syria to fight Daesh.
"We’re there for one reason: we’re there to get ISIS, and get rid of ISIS and go home. We’re not there for any other reason," Trump said during a joint press conference with his Australian counterpart. "And we’ve largely accomplished our goal. But what those three countries have done to people over the last short period of time is a disgrace.”
Home to 400,000 residents, the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta has remained under a crippling regime siege for the last five years, bringing it to the verge of humanitarian catastrophe.
In the past eight months, Assad regime forces have intensified their siege, making it nearly impossible for food or medicine to get into the district, and leaving thousands of patients in need of treatment.
Syria has been locked in a devastating conflict since early 2011 when the regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.
According to UN officials, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict to date.
*Michael Hernandez contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
