AMMAN: Syrian forces and militiamen loyal to President Bashar Al Assad killed at least 85 people yesterday, including women and children, when they stormed a Damascus suburb after five days of fighting, opposition activists in the area said.
“We documented 85 summarily executed, including 28 shot at a makeshift hospital after Assad’s forces went in Jdeidet Al Fadel. We fear that the victims of the massacre are much higher,” said Abu Ahmad Al Rabi’, an activist in the adjacent district of Jdeidet Artouz. There was no immediate confirmation of the activists’ account. Syrian authorities have banned most independent media since the uprising two years ago.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday that the United States would double its non-lethal aid to opposition forces in Syria to $250m.
Kerry stopped short of a US pledge to supply weapons to insurgents fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. But he said that the rebels’ foreign backers were committed to continuing support and had decided to channel all future aid through the insurgents’ Supreme Military Council.
He added that “there would have to be further announcements about the kind of support that might be in the days ahead” if Syrian government forces failed to pursue a peaceful solution.
Speaking after a meeting of the Syrian opposition and its 11 main foreign supporters in Istanbul, Kerry said the United States would provide an additional $123m in non-lethal assistance to the rebels, bringing the total of this kind of US help to $250m.
Kerry urged other foreign backers to make similar pledges of assistance with the goal of reaching $1bn in total international support. At a later news conference, Kerry said he would push to ensure that new non-lethal military aid would be delivered as soon as possible.
Kerry said the equipment could include communications equipment, body armour, night vision goggles and medical supplies to assist the insurgents. Other military supplies pledged by Kerry in late February, including ready-made meals and medical supplies, are only expected to be delivered by the end of this month.
“I can promise you that as soon as I return to Washington which is early next week, I am going to press as hard I can to make sure that this is a matter of weeks that we are talking about...this has to happen as quickly as possible.”
Kerry said he had discussed ways to break the logjams during meetings with the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who hosted the meetings between the Syrian opposition and their foreign backers. Reuters
