Surviving as a child in the longest military siege in modern history

15-year-old Muhammad Najem from Eastern Ghouta (Twitter: @muhammadnajem20)

The Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, Syria is home to more than 350,000 people. Once renowned for its fertile soils and rich agricultural production, Eastern Ghouta is now better known for the Assad regime’s brutal Sarin attack in August 2013, killing more than 1,500 people, and for being home to the longest military siege in modern history. As of February 2018, Eastern Ghouta has been besieged by forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for four years and 10 months, a full year longer than the siege of Sarajevo.

 

During that time Eastern Ghouta has suffered from chemical weapons attacks and intense bombardment at the hands of pro-regime forces, with hundreds killed in the first few days of February alone. Amnesty International have condemned the Syrian government and its allies, saying that its ‘surrender or starve‘ policy amounts to a crime against humanity.

 

Half of Eastern Ghouta’s population are estimated to be children according to UNICEF. A recent survey of 27 locations in East Ghouta conducted in November 2017 has found that the proportion of children under five years old suffering from acute malnutrition was 11.9 per cent.

 

 

15-year-old Syrian boy Muhammad Najem inspects the damage at his school in Eastern Ghouta following regime bombardment. (Twitter @muhammadnajem20)

My name is Muhammad Najem and I am from eastern Ghouta in the Damascus countryside, I am 15-years-old I live here with my mother and siblings.

 

I am in eighth grade but I stopped studying three months ago because of the constant bombardment of the place in which I live.

 

My school was bombed by warplanes more than once but after each raid, we would return and try to complete our studies. But my school was bombed until it was completely destroyed and I no longer have a classroom within which to study or a playground to play in.

 

Schools destroyed

 

The other schools in Eastern Ghouta have also been targeted and destroyed.

I want to tell the world what is happening to us today and convey my suffering, which I live through every day because of the bombings and the siege.

 

I want to tell the truth and to tell people what is happening to us. We are besieged, we are hungry, we are under constant bombardment, we are exhausted from the displacement and the killing.

This war is not ending, but we are forced to grow up in these conditions and no one has done anything to protect and support the vulnerable here. Conferences and meetings and false peace talks fail while the Arabs and the rest of the world are still silent.

 

In this war we have already lost everything, and we are still losing more, every single day, every single one of us has lost something precious.

 

Losing my home and my father

 

I lost my house, which my father built with hard work and the sweat from his forehead. Then my father was killed two years ago after a shell landed on the mosque where he was praying.

 

Many of the children here have lost their fathers or their mothers, many of us have lost siblings and many of us have lost our homes.

 

We have been dismembered, we have lost parts of our bodies, our hands, our feet and our eyes.

 

The world will not be able to compensate us for anything that we lost. We have lost sight of the sky and the sun because of the war planes that fly over us day and night in order to bomb civilians.

Muhammad Najem studies by candlelight in the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta (Twitter: @muhammadnajem20)

The siege surrounds us. The specter of death and starvation hovers over us.

 

Last week the regime began to escalate its violent campaign against us. Planes indiscriminately drop bombs of hatred and destruction on us.

 

On Thursday, warplanes mounted yet more raids on residential buildings. Everyone went down to the cellars and we could hear the roar of the jets above us as we held each other’s hands.

muhammad najem‏ @muhammadnajem20 One of my friends was killed and the other was injured. This is the picture of my friend Salim after leaving the hospital yesterday after the violent raids on his house near my house. I love you so much and wish you and all the children of the world peace and safety❤ #saveghouta

https://twitter.com/muhammadnajem20/status/962976602765357057/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finews.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fsurviving-child-longest-military-siege-modern-history%2F

I was walking in the street with some of my friends, including my friend Salim who lives next door to us when we heard the sound of jets approaching. We fled to the cellar, but Salim ran to his home to hide with his family and uncle. He did not know that at that moment six missiles were on their way to his house.

 

Smoke and black dust

 

Smoke and black dust filled the cellar, choking us and filling the cellar with darkness. Children cried and the women screamed as they tried to check on their terrified children.

 

When the dust settled, we saw that Salim’s house was completely destroyed and the Civil Defense teams were attempting to rescue the people, including Salim and his family, trapped under the rubble.

 

After hours of searching through the rubble, I found out that Salim had miraculously survived. But his younger sister had died, his mother suffered life-changing injuries and his younger brother is still missing. Salim’s little cousins Mohammed, Majid and Raghad were also killed in the air strike.

 

I find it hard to believe the life we are witnessing here in Ghouta. Today I am reassured at least because Salim has left the hospital, but he is unable to move because of his injury. We do not know what tomorrow will bring.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/world/surviving-child-longest-military-siege-modern-history/

Help Syria now Tomorrow it may be too late

The award-winning Syrian writer and analyst Yassin al-Haj Saleh wrote this letter two years ago

Help Syria now. Tomorrow it may be too late
By Yassin al-Haj Saleh
Wednesday 10 July 2013 04.00 EDT

A Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. Moscow has a contract for the delivery of the S-300s to Syria. ‘Everything will be different in post-Assad Syria but worse is to watch Syrians getting killed by Russian arms.’ Photograph: Str/AP

An open letter to friends and leaders of public opinion in the west: current policy is short-sighted and inhumane
Dear friends,

Three months ago, I left the city of Damascus, where life had become too oppressive, to go to the “liberated” area of East Ghouta. An area that had 2 million inhabitants before the uprising, East Ghouta is now populated by only around one million. It was a base from which the rebels headed towards the capital, but is now completely besieged by the regime’s forces due to renewed support from Russia and Iran, and the arrival of Iran-sponsored Iraqi and Lebanese militias. During the past three months, I have personally witnessed the staggering lack of arms, ammunition, and even food for the fighters. Many of them would get two meals a day at most, and their situation would have been immeasurably worse had they not been local residents, protecting their own towns and families, and living off their own kin.

The cities and towns that I have seen or lived in during these months are subjected to daily and random air strikes and mortar and rocket shelling. Victims, mostly civilians, fall every day. In a centre for civil defence where I lived for a month I used to see all the bodies brought in. Some were indistinguishable remains, others belonged to children, and among the victims was a six-month fetus lost by a terrified mother. Not a single day passed during that month without victims; two or three usually, but nine on one day, 28 on another, and 11 on a third.

Besides civilians, several fighters are killed every day by the arms of a superior power, with superior support.

The entire area has not had power for eight months. Therefore, people depend on numerous easily broken generators that consume a lot of gasoline at a time when this is becoming increasingly scarce, which in turn forces people to stop using their fridges despite the soaring heat. Land and mobile telephone networks are all cut. In the last week, wheat has become scarce as well. I have only been eating twice a day. It is OK so far. The new diet has helped me lose 10 kilograms.

Worst of all, however, is the increasing number of people who are being buried in a hurry and without dignity. People are scared to linger near the cemeteries and be targeted by new missiles. We – myself and a number of friends – are still alive. In Damascus, we faced the constant possibility of arrest and insufferable torture. Here we are safe from that, but not from a missile that could land on our heads at any minute.

One of the most remarkable things I noticed during my first few days here was that Friday prayers were called for at 9am in one mosque, half an hour later in another mosque, and then in others with half an hour between each. The purpose was to avoid gathering a large number of people in one place so as not to allow the regime to kill the most people possible. The regime tried before, and in one city, there are five destroyed mosques.

More painful is that more than two-thirds of the children are not enrolled in schools, either because their parents are too terrified to let them out of their sight, or because there are very few schools available. Those that are still open are all underground to avoid shelling, and several hospitals are there too.

People fight here with absolute defiance because they realise that a big massacre awaits them if the regime succeeds in regaining control over the area. Those who are not killed immediately will be arrested and tortured savagely. The options of the people are to either die resisting the aggression of a fascist regime or to be killed by this same regime in the worst way possible. People shudder with fear, and I myself shudder, at the thought that this regime might rule us again.

The current situation is the direct result of the unwillingness of great powers to support the Syrian revolutionaries, while the allies of the regime have not only continued to support it with money, men, and weapons, but increased this support in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Finally, after the world established that the regime used chemical weapons, (something I documented myself and verified with friends who have the necessary personal expertise), and after the regime had secured the world’s approval of its use of air force and long-distance rockets against cities and residential neighbourhoods, after all that western powers have decided to support the revolutionaries with arms for the purpose of re-establishing ‘balance’ whose disruption in favour of the regime they themselves had facilitated.

This policy is not only short-sighted, nor is it just going to prolong the conflict, it is deeply inhumane. There are no two equal evils in Syria – as most of the western media claims, contrary to the reports of the United Nations and international organizations. There is a fascist regime that has already killed more than 100,000 of its own people, on one hand, and a diverse umbrella of revolutionaries, of which some had been radicalised due to the longevity of the conflict and the weakening resistance of Syrian society towards radicalism. The longer the Syrians are left alone to die the more likely it is that the radical groups will gain strength and the voice of reason and moderation will grow weak. From my personal experience, this is exactly what is happening. Whenever new victims fell, especially children, people at the civil defence centre would look at me with probing eyes. They wonder what value the “reasonable” language I use has anymore.

There is only one right thing today, from a Syrian and a human standpoint: to help the Syrians rid themselves of the Assad dynasty that acts as if Syria is their fief and Syrians their serfs. Everything will be difficult in post-Assad Syria, but removing Assad will set a new more moderate dynamic in Syrian society, and will allow Syrians to stand against those more radical among them. Much worse than this would be to allow this conflict to fester and for its human and material cost to rise; worse is to watch Syrians getting killed by Russian arms, and in the hands of local, Lebanese and Iranian murderers, worse too would be to impose a settlement that does not punish the criminals and does not resolve Syrian problems.

US and western politicians often insist that there can’t be a military solution to the Syrian conflict. But where is the political solution? When did Bashar Assad say during the past 28 months and after more than 100,000 deaths that he is willing to enter into serious negotiations with the opposition in order to share power? The truth is that there won’t be a political solution without forcing Assad to step down, now, and with him all the masters of killing in his regime.

Our dear friends, I address you today because the Syrian tragedy has become one of the world’s biggest and most dangerous problems today. It has displaced more than a third of the population, internally and externally; there are hundreds of thousands of people injured or disabled, and what amounts to a quarter of million detainees who are being subjected to horrific torture.

We implore you as leaders of public opinion in your countries to pressure your governments to assume a clear stance against Assad and in favour of an end to his regime. This is the only human and progressive thing to do; and there is nothing more fascist and reactionary in today’s world than a regime that kills its people, imports killers and mercenaries from abroad, and stirs up a sectarian war that might not stop before it takes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

We look to your support today. Tomorrow might be too late.

Article from: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/10/help-syria-now-tomorrow-too-late

Syria Assad Regime List of Barrel Bomb Attack on Civilians

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has mercilessly dropped barrel bombs full of TNT, shrapnel on civilian heavily-populated areas of syria … Children little bodies were blown into pieces…innocent civilians were buried alive in their own home…

A barrel bomb is a type of improvised explosive device used by the Syrian Air Force during the Syrian civil war. They are typically made from a barrel that has been filled with High Explosives, with possibly shrapnel and/or oil, and then dropped from a helicopter. Due to the large amount of explosives that can be packed into a barrel the resulting detonation can be devastating. The Syrian regime often drops the bombs on urban areas leading to high civilian death tolls. There have been thousands of instances of the use of barrel bombs during the Syrian civil war, as reported by the news and activists, including:

2012

In August 2012, report of a barrel bomb being dropped on the Hamidiya neighborhood of Homs.
In August 2012, report of barrel bombs being dropped on Al-Qusayr.
In September 2012, a large number of people were killed and wounded when a barrel bomb was dropped on a residential district in Aleppo.

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2013

In late August 2013, barrel bombs were dropped on at least two areas of the city, including over a public park in Bab al-Nairab.
On 8 October 2013, a barrel bomb was dropped on the village of Bizabur, Idlib, just south of Ariha.
On 30 November 2013, a barrel bomb killed at least 26 people in Al Bab, Aleppo.
On 1 December 2013, a barrel bomb killed at least 20 people in Al-Bab, Aleppo.
From 15–24 December 2013, barrel bombs killed more than 300 people (and as many as more than 650 according to the Syrian National Council) in several districts of Aleppo.
On 26 December 2013, a barrel bomb killed at least 15 people in Azaz.
On 29 December 2013, a barrel bomb killed at least 25 people in Aleppo.

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2014
January

On 7 January 2014, barrel bombs killed an unspecified number of civilians in the Damascus suburb or Douma.
On 12 January 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 15 people in Al-Bab, Aleppo.
On 14 January 2014, barrel bombs killed an unspecified number of people in Darayya, Arbin and Zabadani, all in the province of Rural Damascus.
On 14 January 2014, a barrel bomb was dropped on the village of Inkhil in Deraa province.
On 18 January 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 60 people in Aleppo.
On 22 January 2014, barrel bombs were dropped in the central Hama province.
On 24 January 2014, barrel bombs were dropped on Darayya.
On 25 January 2014, barrel bombs killed 10 people when dropped on Aleppo’s outlying industrial city and the Sheikh Najjar districts.
On 28 January 2014, a barrel bomb killed 22 people in Aleppo.
On 29 January 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 62 people in the Maadi and Salhin districts of south Aleppo.
On 30 January 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 11 people in Darayya.

February

From 1–5 February 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 246 people in Aleppo.
On 8 February 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 20 people in Aleppo, and an unspecified number of people in Darayya.
On 9 February 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 11 people in Aleppo.
On 11 February 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 10 people in Aleppo.
On 12 February 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 38 people in Aleppo, while 31 people were killed in Daraa – mostly by barrel bombs.
On 16 February 2014, barrel bombs were dropped on Aleppo, Darayya, Khan al-Shih and several locations in rural Idlib.
On 17 February 2014, a barrel bomb was dropped on Masaken Hanano, Aleppo.
On 18 February 2014, barrel bombs were dropped in several parts of Syria, while a barrel bomb killed at least 18 people when dropped on the Palestinian refugee camp in Deraa.
On 23 February 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 12 people in Aleppo.

March

On 4 March 2014, barrel bombs were dropped on Yabrud.
On 5 March 2014, barrel bombs killed a number of people in Aleppo, Yabrud and Daraya.
On 6 March 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 13 people after being dropped on Aleppo and Yabrud.
On 7 March 2014, barrel bombs killed a number of people in Yabrud.
On 8 March 2014, barrel bombs destroyed many buildings including a mosque in Aleppo.
On 9 March 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 8 people, including a Canadian freelance photographer, after being dropped on Aleppo.
On 15 March 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 6 people after being dropped on Ras al-Maara and Yabrud.
On 22 March 2014, barrel bombs were dropped on Naima, Daraa Governorate.
On 24 March 2014, barrel bombs were dropped on Kesab and the Jebel Turkman.
On 26 March 2014, barrel bombs killed 20 people and wounded 40 others in the Anadan region of Aleppo.
On 27 March 2014, barrel bombs were dropped on Observatory 45, as well as Flitah, near the Lebanon border, where it killed 8 rebels.
On 31 March 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 31 people after being dropped on the Aleppo town of Maaret al-Artiq.

April

On 2 April 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 15 people after being dropped across the province of Aleppo and Deraa.
On 4 April 2014, barrel bombs killed about 50 people after being dropped on the Dalati Mosque and Dar al-Shifa Hospital of the Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo during peak times.
On 6 April 2014, barrel bombs caused much destruction in the Andana district of Aleppo.
On 10 April 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 88 people in the northern neighborhood of Aleppo.
On 11 April 2014, a barrel bomb, allegedly containing chemicals, was dropped on Kafr Zita.
On 12 April 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 11 people in the Anadan and Hrytan region of Aleppo.
On 20 April 2014, barrel bombs killed 59 people in Aleppo Province.
On 22 April 2014, 38 barrel bombs were dropped on rebel-controlled east Aleppo neighborhoods.
On 24 April 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 24 people when dropped on a vegetable market in Atareb, Aleppo.
On 26 April 2014, a barrel bomb killed at least 6 people in the town of Sarmeen, Idlib,[67] and at least 10 people in Lataminah, Hama.
On 30 April 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 25 children, after being dropped on an elementary school in Aleppo.

May

On 1 May 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 40 people in a busy market in Aleppo[70] and a barrel bomb killed 1 Syrian refugee and wounded four others in the remote border village of Tfail in east Lebanon.
On 10 May 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 46 people in eastern areas of Aleppo city.
On 11 May 2014, opposition forces accused the regime of contaminating a water supply in Aleppo after a barrel bomb struck a pumping station, one of two in the city.
On 21 May, barrel bombs destroyed many houses and claimed many lives in the town of Maaret al-Artik, Aleppo.
On 22 May, the Army had finally broken the siege of Aleppo prison after more than 100 barrel bombs were dropped during the final push to reach the prison.
On 27 May 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 43 people in Aleppo.
On 29 May 2014, barrel bombs claimed many lives in Darat Izza, Aleppo province.
On 30 May 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 20 people in Aleppo’s Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood.

June

On 2 June 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 22 people in Aleppo.
On 3 June 2014, barrel bombs injured dozens of people and damaged the Mosque of the Blacksmiths in Aleppo.
On 4 June 2014, barrel bombs targeted Aleppo, the town of Khan al-Shih, south of Damascus, several areas of Idlib province, and Morek, in Hama province.
On 5 June 2014, a mosque was hit by a barrel bomb at Qadi Askar district in Aleppo.
On 8 June 2014, a barrel bomb killed at least 7 people in the neighborhood of Tariq al-Bab, Aleppo.
On 14 June 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 8 people in Mayadeen, Aleppo, 13 people in Anadan, Aleppo province, and destroyed a mosque in Aleppo.
On 16 June 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 37 people in the Sukkari and Ashrafieh neighborhoods of Aleppo, and at least 3 people in a number of rural areas of Deraa province.
On 18 June 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 20 and injured at least 80 people, many seriously, in the refugee camp in the village of Shajra, 2 km (1 mile) from the Jordanian border.
On 21 June 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 11 people near the Ghouta district of Damascus.
On 22 June 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 9 people in the neighborhoods of Halak and Bab al-Nasr in Aleppo.
On 26 June 2014, barrel bombs killed as many as 49 people in areas in Aleppo and Hama province.

July

On 6 July 2014, barrel bombs killed 8 members of a single family in Da’el, Deraa province.
On 11 July 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 20 people in Aleppo.
On 16 and 17 July 2014, barrel bombs were dropped on the central town of Morek.
On 21 July 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 10 people in Al-Ansari neighborhood of Aleppo.
On 28 July 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 9 people in the Shaar district of Aleppo.

August

On 3 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 23 people in the Jabal al Akrad, Jisr al-Shughur and Najia districts of Idlib.
On 9 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 30 people and destroyed a mosque in the Maadi neighborhood of Aleppo.
On 10 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 24 people in Hama and Ar-Raqqah.
On 11 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 25 people in several districts of Aleppo and cut off water and electricity supplies.
On 13 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 17 people in the Bab al-Nairab district and al-Shaar area of Aleppo.
On 14 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 6 people in the Maadi neighborhood of Aleppo.
On 15 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 10 people in Aleppo and 14 people in Rastan.
On 22 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 20 people in Aleppo.
On 24 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 5 children in three villages in Daraa province.
On 30 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 5 people from the same family in the Hamra district of Aleppo.
On 31 August 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 42 children across Syria.

September

On 5 September 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 15 people in the Haidariyeh district of Aleppo.
On 8 September 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 7 people in the town of Tebet al-Imam near Hama.
On 15 September 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 15 people in Talbiseh.
On 18 September 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 15 people in Al-Bab.
On 20 September 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 8 people in the Arad Hamra, Al Haidarieh and Masakn Hanano districts of Aleppo.
On 26 September 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 5 people in al-Rastan and 9 people east of Aleppo.

October

On 1 October 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 23 people in Aleppo.
On 10 October 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 19 people in Daraa.
On 12 October 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 12 people in Binnish.
On 19 October 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 7 members of one family in the village of Sousan in northern Aleppo.
On 23 October 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 10 people in Daraa, and 15 people in the village of Tal Qarrah in the north of Aleppo.
On 26 October 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 12 civilians from the same family in the town of Busra al-Sham in Daraa province.
On 29 October 2014, barrel bombs killed as many as 75 civilians when dropped on the Abedin displaced persons camp in Idlib.
On 31 October 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 4 people in Rastan district in Homs.

November

On 6 November 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 12 people in the Shaar neighbourhood of Aleppo.
On 9 November 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 21 people in Al-Bab.
On 13 November 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 20 people in a primary school in Ras al-Ayn, al-Hasakah Governorate.
On 17 November 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 14 people near a bakery and a restaurant in Al-Bab.
On 18 November 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 14 people in Qabr al-Inglizi, near the villages of Huraytan and Kafr Hamrah.
On 28 November 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 20 people in Daraa Governorate.
On 30 November 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 12 people in Jasim, Daraa Governorate.

December

Notably, on 28 November 2014, a huge explosion occurred at the Syrian military airbase outside Hama. This was attributed to the complete destruction of the entire barrel-bomb making building on the airfield.

On 23 December 2014, barrel bombs killed at least 7 people in Safuhin, Maarrat al-Nu’man District, Idlib Governorate.
From 21-26 December 2014, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian regime dropped 193 barrel bombs across Syria.
On 25 December 2014, barrel bombs killed about 40 people in al-Bab and Qabaseen, near Aleppo.

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Article from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Syrian_Civil_War_barrel_bomb_attacks

Bashar al-Assad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad

Syrians told they can eat dogs, cats and donkeys

Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Philip Luther said: ‘Syrian forces are committing war crimes by using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war.’

“Today I have eaten nothing. Yesterday I had a small bowl of rice. We are down to one small meal per day.” There is no food. We had five roads out of here but the regime closed them with sniper and tanks.”

“If you are a mother who loses a child to a bullet, not to sarin gas, your grief is as deep and profound as those who have faced the most horrible of weapons. We cannot close our eyes to that,”

Read more articles:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2577009/Starving-Syrians-forced-eat-cats-dogs-survive-says-Amnesty-International-report.html

Eat cats and dogs, imam tells starving Syrians
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10381310/Eat-cats-and-dogs-imam-tells-starving-Syrians.html

Nerve gas attack in a Damascus by the Syrian Government

The brutal civil war in Syria, in its fourth year, is one of the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises!

Help Syrian Refugees Today

Read more articles:
Syria Civil War Fast Facts
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/27/world/meast/syria-civil-war-fast-facts/

Save Syria’s bombed buildings from the Unesco ruin fetishists
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/17/save-syria-bombed-buildings-unesco-ruin

Emergency Medical Aid Arrives as Syria Crisis Grows More Deadly
http://www.americares.org/who-we-are/newsroom/news/new-medical-aid-underway-as-crisis-in-syria-intensifies.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjwtb6hBRC_57Pvyfn66LsBEiQAtlFVu2lGj8yM7DVwD85J7ZIqA46Y82f5LJ6uq3mNWXMSgJgaAqIQ8P8HAQ

Deadly Syria Crisis: Shipment of Nerve Gas Treatment Underway
http://www.americares.org/who-we-are/newsroom/news/deadly-syria-crisis-nerve-gas-treatment-underway.html

ISIS is a threat to civilization

ISIS message to US: “We will kill your people and transform America to a river of blood.”

The Barbarism of ISIS- The crimes against humanity

1) Beheading children, no matter the eventual goal, can never be justified by a civilized people.

2) Terror in the form of crucifixions can never be tolerated by the world community.

3) Yazidi children on Mount Sinjar, drinking their parents’ blood to stay alive in the face of the ISIS siege, is reminiscent of the desperation portrayed in Schindler’s List and Hotel Rwanda.

The civilized world mourned the atrocities of those conflicts, as well as our inaction in the face of such barbarous actions. We will soon find ourselves mourning another genocide if President Obama, and Republicans alike, do not agree to take decisive action against this abomination. ISIS cannot merely be contained or defeated, some pundits correctly contend, it must be destroyed.

Read more articles:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/09/don_t_watch_isis_s_murder_of_steven_sotloff_honor_him_by_remembering_the.html