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Syria regime shells its own envoy in Wadi Barada

January 13, 2017 at 12:18 pm

Image of debris buildings are seen after being hit by airstrikes as the Assad regime continues to violate the ceasefire agreement in Syria on 12th January 2017 [Gaes Sayid/Anadolu]

The Syrian Assad regime yesterday shelled its own envoy that it sent to coordinate with members of the Syrian opposition in Wadi Barada and under the guise of repairing water pumping stations that the regime had bombed almost a fortnight ago.

The Wadi Barada valley is a strategic area west of the Syrian capital Damascus, providing not only the majority of the capital’s water supply via the Ain Al-Fijah spring, but also connecting to areas used by Iran-backed Shia jihadists Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Syrian opposition had agreed with the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad to allow access to the envoys who would also guarantee the security of maintenance teams sent out to repair the damage to water pumping stations caused by the Assad regime.

According to Al Jazeera, the regime’s envoys were to enter the damaged pumping stations and raise the Syrian regime’s flag as a sign that it was safe for the repair teams to move in.

However, as they were en route to the pumping stations accompanied by their counterparts from the Syrian opposition, the Assad regime began shelling the convoy of vehicles. According to opposition sources, the attacks that almost killed the Assad regime’s emissaries forced them to be protected and then evacuated to a safe area by the Syrian opposition in Wadi Barada.

The Assad regime has yet to release a statement on the incident, neither confirming nor denying it has happened.

Footage released by the Wadi Barada Media Centre, an opposition activist group that monitors the continuing regime assault in the valley, showed Syrian military helicopters dropping barrel bombs on the water pumping stations that put them out of order.

Regime self-sabotages for long-term gain

The Wadi Barada Media Centre released a report yesterday that denounced the regime’s continuing assault on the valley, despite a Turkish and Russian-brokered ceasefire being in place.

They also confirmed that the regime and its Russian backers were attacking the villages of Kfeir Al-Zeit, Deir Qanoun and Bseima, the latter of which suffered from the effects of chlorine gas attacks.

Footage released by the activists showed a Russian helicopter dropping bombs on Wadi Barada, which the Syrian opposition claims is around the Bseima village.

Despite Wadi Barada’s Ain Al-Fijah spring supplying water to about four million Damascenes, speculation has abounded as to why the Assad regime would risk its own water supply.

Speaking to MEMO, Syrian journalist Muhammad Fares suggested that, so long as Al-Assad and his loyalists had water, the regime did not care what happened to the rest of the people of Damascus.

“The regime never considered the people of Damascus as a part of [its responsibility],” Fares said, adding that “the Assad regime is seeking to conduct massacres in Wadi Barada and to enact demographic changes there.”

Fares said that the Assad regime was temporarily disrupting Damascus’ water supply in order to turn the people against the revolution and the idea of regime change, while also ensuring long-term control over Wadi Barada’s water.

“The regime wants to cleanse the valley of its inhabitants to control water resources and to secure arms and drug smuggling routes to and from Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

Apart from assisting the regime in crucial battles such as in Aleppo last month, Hezbollah has been actively aiding forces loyal to Al-Assad in their campaign to gain control over Wadi Barada. This comes as Russia and Turkey attempt to convene a peace conference in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana later this month.

Common to most conflicts, the Assad regime is likely attempting to seize as much ground as possible before any possible cessation of hostilities that could arise from the Astana talks.

The Syrian civil war has raged since 2011, when the Assad regime brutally cracked down on protesters calling for the reform of the regime. In response to Al-Assad’s extreme violence, calls for reform swiftly changed to calls for revolution, and the two sides have been locked in a bitter and gruelling struggle ever since.