Screenshot QudsNetwork's video claims to
show Al-Yarmouk neighborhood of Damascus, Syria,
after an alleged air bombardment by Syria's
government forces (December 16, 2012
/ Image from youtube.com)
Syrian warplanes have attacked a Palestinian refugee camp
close to Syria’s
capital city, Damascus, killing
eight, activists report. The camp not only hosts Palestinians, but also Syrians
displaced by the country’s ongoing conflict.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that
at least eight people died when at least one rocket struck a mosque that houses
refugees who had fled from the fighting in Damascus.
“Warplanes staged an air strike on an area near
Al-Bassel hospital… in al-Yarmuk camp, hurting several people,” said the
Observatory. They added that "the toll may rise, because several of
the injured are in a critical condition."
A video
allegedly filmed by a witness shows several dead bodies sprawled in what
appears to be a mosque yard in al-Yarmouk. The surrounding streets were covered
with shattered glass and blood stains. The video was uploaded to youtube by
QudsNetwork, a Palestinian news outlet, but cannot be independently verified.
Al-Watan daily reports the area erupted in violence Sunday
as government troops clashed with opposition forces. The edition says
Palestinian self-defense forces support pro-Assad fighters. Other sources
insist Palestinians are divided over the conflict and can be found fighting on
both sides.
Al-Yarmouk is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria
and is located in a strategic region to the south of Damascus,
where government forces have been attempting to push back rebel fighters for
the past couple of weeks. In August, there were reports that a mortat attack
killed at least 20 people in a shopping area there.
In the wake of the reports, Palestinian president Mahmud
Abbas appealed on Sunday for an “immediate” halt to firing on Palestinian
refugee camps in Syria.
"We call on the warring sides in Syria
to spare the Palestinian people and their camps in Syria,"
he said as quoted by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Over 500,000 Palestinians live in Syria
which has been going through a harsh civil conflict since March 2011. Over
32,000 people have died in clashes between opposition and government troops,
with a further 420,000 becoming refugees in what is widely viewed as an
uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad. Syrian state media, however,
maintain that Damascus continues to
“cleanse” what they have branded as “terrorists" from
the region.
In other developments, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
declared Sunday that the struggle within Syria
is not Assad’s government cracking down on its own people, but that the
opposition, which is funded from abroad, is committed to a military
confrontation and rejects any dialogue.
“The battle is not at all between the regime and its
people. There is a division. A segment of the population supports the regime
and another supports the opposition which has taken up arms and is being aided
by regional forces and there is an armed confrontation,” Nasrallah said as
cited by Lebanon’s
Naharnet.
“The battle is far from over in Syria because the armed
opposition is rejecting any dialogue with the regime, which will bring further
violence and bloodshed,” he added.
Hezbollah has been accused by the Syrian opposition of
sending fighters to Syria
to help Assad, but the group denies these allegations.
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