clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Syria regime kills 20 civilians in Yarmouk refugee camp

April 25, 2018 at 10:53 am

Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria in 2014 [Laila Ben Allal/Middle East Monitor]

Around 20 civilians have been killed in week-long regime airstrikes on Syria’s Yarmouk refugee camp, according to local sources today.

Several people were injured in the attacks, sources told the Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

According to the sources, regime forces were trying to advance from the southern side of the camp, which accommodates some 2,500 families, amid heavy bombardment.

The attacks come after the regime and Daesh failed to reach a deal on evacuating the terrorist group’s militants from the Yarmouk camp and its vicinity.

Daesh has been in control of the majority of the camp, which is predominantly inhabited by Palestinian refugees.

A number of world leaders are taking part in the Supporting Syria and the Region conference in Belgium which began yesterday. The UN’s two most senior Syria experts warned during the two-day event of an Aleppo-style humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib, the last major opposition-held area in Syria.

READ: Belgium allocates €26m for humanitarian aid in Syria

Jan Egeland, the head of the UN’s humanitarian task force for Syria, said: “All my energies currently and in the coming weeks are dedicated to averting a fresh humanitarian disaster.”

“My fear is the Syrian government will say the place is filled with ‘terrorists’ and therefore you can wage war like they did during the sieges in Aleppo and eastern Ghouta.”

This has become a tremendous marathon of pain.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011 when Bashar Al-Assad’s regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, according to the UN.