UNICEF condemns E. Ghouta attack with blank statement
Blank statement implies UN body has run out of words to describe brutality of Assad regime
Ankara
By Bayram Altug
GENEVA
UN children body on Tuesday said there were “no words” to describe the brutal Syrian regime attacks in Eastern Ghouta, in which 167 civilians were killed.
“No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones,” said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa in a statement.
The statement, published in English and Arabic, is followed by a page left blank deliberately to protest the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians.
At least 167 civilians have been killed in the past two days in the intensified Syrian regime attacks on the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, sources from the Syrian Civil Defense said on Tuesday.
Sources from the Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, told Anadolu Agency that during the recent regime attacks on civilian areas in Eastern Ghouta, 88 people were killed on Monday and 79 on Tuesday.
The death toll is expected to increase with the attacks still continuing in several areas.
Eastern Ghouta falls within a network of de-escalation zones -- endorsed by Turkey, Russia, and Iran -- in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
Home to some 400,000 civilian residents, Eastern Ghouta has remained under a crippling regime siege for the last five years.
Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011, when the regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity. Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.