The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights


This frame grab from video provided By Step News Agency, a Syrian opposition media outlet that is consistent with independent AP reporting, shows smoke rise from the government forces shelling on Wadi Barada, northwest of Damascus, Syria. Water supplies to Damascus have been largely cut off for nearly two weeks because of fighting between pro-government forces and rebels for control of the main tributary, forcing millions in the Syrian capital to scramble for enough to drink and wash with. The cut-off is a major challenge to the government’s effort throughout the nearly 6-year-old civil war to keep the capital as insulated as possible from the effects of the conflict tearing apart much of the country. (Step News Agency, via AP)

The regime forces continue for the second day in a row the new military operation in Barada Valley after the calm and their advancement in the hills northwest of the valley

 

Rif Dimashq – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights:
Clashes renewed again this morning in areas Kfir al-Zayt, Kafr al-Awamid and Deir Meqren northwestern of Barada valley, between the regime forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah and the gunmen loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities against the rebel and Islamic factions and Fath al-Sham Front, while two persons were killed when the regime forces targeted using heavy machineguns areas in the town of Deir Meqren in Barada Valley yesterday, also the valley witnessed yesterday clashes between both parties in the northwestern areas of the valley, during which the factions tried to achieve advancement in the hills overlooking Kfir al-Zayt and restore points in the hills near Deir Meqren, which the regime forces advanced to them yesterday in the vicinity of Dahrat al-Nhilah northwest of Barada Valley, and clashes were accompanied yesterday by tens of airstrikes, missile and artillery shells between both parties, which targeted Barada valley on Sunday, after the regime forces resumed escalation of military operations, as a result of failure to reach an agreement about the water, its sources and the pumping stations in Ayn al-Fijah, which are based on the withdrawal of fighters from the spring, pumping stations and its surroundings, and rising the flags of the regime over it even if the regime forces never controlled it militarily and remained in the hands of a neutral party close to the regime and responsible for water pumping and control operations, where the agreement didn’t take place between both parties via mediators and notables, despite the confirmation of field commanders to the Syrian observatory for human rights that they “did not use the issue of cutting-off the water of the capital Damascus as leverage in the ongoing military operations in Wadi Barada”, while the Syrian Observatory was aware that commanders of the regime and Hezbollah have told the mediators that “in case no serious and full deal is made, then let Damascus be thirsty for a month until we rest other years from the water issue”.

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