Damascus international airport came under rebel mortar attack today, officials said, as the United Nations warned that children and families are increasingly becoming victims of the “vicious” conflict in Syria.
Faced with recent government victories, Free Syrian Army rebel military chief Selim Idriss is to meet tomorrow in Turkey with representatives of countries allied with the opposition.
Rebels fired two mortar rounds, delaying two landings and one take-off, state television quoted Transport Minister Mahmoud Said as saying.
“One mortar round hit at the airport’s edges, near the runway, causing two flights coming from Latakia (in northwest Syria) and Kuwait to delay their landing. The take-off of a flight to Baghdad was also delayed,” he said.
No passengers were hurt, but the second round hit an airport warehouse and wounded a worker, Said added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the attack on the regime’s main gateway to the world had been carried out by home-made rockets.
“Rebels hit Damascus airport with three home-made rockets,” said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, who described the attack as “rare“.
The airport lies southeast of Damascus, near several flashpoint areas and near the heated Eastern Ghouta region, large swathes of which are in rebel hands.
With the conflict escalating, the United Nations in Geneva said at least 93,000 people, including more than 6,500 children, have been killed in Syria’s 27-month civil war.
The skyrocketing number of deaths over the past year, along with documented cases of children tortured and entire families massacred, “is a terrible reminder of just how vicious this conflict has become,” UN rights chief Navi Pillay said.
Describing the killings as “senseless carnage”, Pillay said the toll in a new UN-commissioned study was “most likely a minimum casualty figure. The true number of those killed is potentially much higher.”