DAMASCUS: Thousands of Syrian schoolchildren started their academic year on time yesterday after concern that schools would not open on schedule due to threats of a US military strike.
In Damascus, many school buildings had been transformed into barracks to house personnel fleeing military sites that could be targets in a strike that US President Barack Obama said would be punishment for an alleged chemical attack on August 21.
By last morning most soldiers had moved out, in a sign that President Bashar Al Assad’s government no longer fears strikes following a deal negotiated by the United States and Russia under which he would destroy his chemical arsenal.
The streets of Damascus were busy again after weeks of anticipation of military action. Some major roads were gridlocked with traffic.
Hundreds of girls poured out of Satea Al Hosari all-girls middle school in west Damascus at 1 pm, carrying their newly issued textbooks in white plastic bags and looking for their parents or school buses.
“It’s been a long summer, and the kids have been cooped up at home for too long and I’m happy to have them out of the house and back into their routine,” said Mayse, a mother of three, as she waited outside the school to pick up her daughter.
When her daughter came out, she told her mother about friends who had not shown up to school because they had left town, and others whose families were considering leaving.
Reflecting the turmoil in the economy, school uniforms are now three to five times as expensive as they were before the revolt started.
As Washington talked of a military strike in response to the August 21 incident, the presence of soldiers and armed security men in densely populated residential neighbourhoods left many Damascenes worried.
At the start of the month, rebels situated on the edge of the city fired a mortar bomb at Hosari school but it hit a nearby apartment block.
Nearby shop owners said the soldiers’ presence made them vulnerable to attacks and that they were disconcerted by the men with guns in their neighbourhood.
REUTERS
