Syria launches air strikes after ‘Islam Army’ targets Damascus

Syrian air strikes killed at least 57 people Wednesday in Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The strikes targeted Army of Islam rebels who launched rockets into Damascus earlier in the day, killing at least five.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army had responded to the second major Army of Islam attack in two weeks with at least 70 air strikes in the Eastern Ghouta district, where the militants are based.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, said five people were killed in what it said was a bombardment by “takfiri terrorists”. “Takfiri” is a term used to describe hardline Sunni groups who consider other Muslims and non-Muslims to be infidels.

The Army of Islam was formed by a merger of rebel factions in 2013 and follows an Islamist doctrine. The group has in the past received financial backing from Saudi Arabia.

A message on a Twitter account thought to belong to Army of Islam chief Zahran Alloush said the attack was a taste of what the Syrian military had done to Ghouta. He described Damascus as a “military zone” this week, and said his group would respond to the air strikes.

SANA showed photographs of damaged cars and buildings and wounded people being treated in hospital. State television said three missiles had hit areas around the ancient Umayyad Mosque, located in the capital’s Old City.

Around 200,000 people have been killed since the March 2011 outbreak of Syria’s civil war, which has seen a range of rebel groups – including Islamist brigades and hardline jihadists such as the Islamic State group and al Qaeda’s al Nusra Front – fighting against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

US-led forces are bombarding Islamic State group targets in both Syria and Iraq.

Elsewhere on Thursday, the air force attacked areas northeast of Damascus, including the city of Douma and the town of Arbin, killing 35 people and wounding around 140, the Observatory said.

On January 25, the Army of Islam mounted one of the heaviest attacks on Damascus in more than a year, firing at least 38 rockets and killing seven people, the Observatory said.

On Sunday in Damascus, a bomb claimed by al Nusra Front tore apart a bus carrying Lebanese Shiite Muslim pilgrims.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

 

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