Militants assault on Damascus northern outskirts proved complete fiasco

[Bleipriester]

Terrorists were unsuccessful in northern Damascus. They never learn.

"For the people of Al-Assad Superb (nearly 10 km to the north of the Syrian capital Damascus), the night of June 17th was unexpectedly tumultuous.

Republican Guard forces, backed by Jaysh Al-Wafaa (Amy of Loyalists), launched at midnight a wide-scale offensive against Islamic militants in Douma orchards to the west.


Earlier on the day, the militants fired more than 20 mortars and homegrown missiles on the area, injuring many civilians. The Army responded by shelling Douma with 4 surface-to-surface missiles (Type Al-Fil “Elephant”: a locally-developed rocket with a sound similar to that released by the elephant).

Clashes renewed at midnight when the Syrian Army and National Defense Forces rocked Douma with tens of missiles. The 6-hour long battle spread to the west of Damascus-Homs highway where government forces advanced deep into the orchards, taking over several blocks including “The Sugar Building”.

During the night battle, more than a hundred mortars hit the residential superb leaving only huge material damage.

The city of Douma is mainly controlled by Jaysh Al-Islam led by Zahran Alloush. A couple of days ago, Zahran’s men executed the general commander of Jaysh Al-Wafaa, Khalid Al-Deri.

Islamic militants attempted to recapture the blocks they lost to government troops. But the counteroffensive proved a fiasco with tens of them left dead."

Militants assault on Damascus northern outskirts proved complete fiasco

 

[waltky]

Refugees in Damascus swelling population from 2 million to 4 million people...

Water crisis in Damascus as government attacks valley
Thu, Jan 05, 2017 - SEAT OF POWER: Despite occasional mortar rounds fired on the outskirts, Syrians have fled to the capital, swelling its population from 2 million to 4 million people

Damascus residents are scrambling for clean water after the Syrian government attacked rebels holding the city’s main source in a nearby valley, leading to an accidental outage that has stretched on for nearly two weeks. The cut-off is a major challenge to the government’s effort throughout the nearly six-year-old civil war to keep the capital as insulated as possible from the effects of the conflict tearing apart much of the country. “I have stopped cleaning the house, washing dishes or clothes. We no longer take showers,” said Mona Maqssoud, a 50-year-old resident of Damascus. She said others have relied on water tankers that come by occasionally and give 20 liters of water to each house, but that has not been enough. “We begged the drivers [to return] to our neighborhood, but they refused,” she said.

The cut-off, since Dec. 22, is the longest Damascus has seen, said residents, who are accustomed to intermittent outages. The opposition has long controlled Wadi Barada, the valley northwest of Damascus through which the river of the same name flows to the capital. The Barada River and its source, the Ain al-Fijeh spring, supply 70 percent of the water for Damascus and its environs. The Syrian government and the opposition had previously had an understanding to keep water services running, but that modus vivendi ended when forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies, the Hezbollah, attacked the valley, home to about 100,000 people. The two sides blame each other for the cut-off.

An activist-run media collective in the Barada Valley said Syrian government and Russian aircraft had bombed the Ain al-Fijeh water processing facility, puncturing its fuel depots and contaminating the water stream. The collective said the plant’s electrical control systems had been destroyed as well. Images showed the roof of the facility collapsed into its main water basin. An activist with the group, Abu Mohammed al-Bardawi, said it would take at least two months to get the facilities working again. Damascus officials said they were forced to shut off the water after opposition forces poured gasoline into the river. The Syrian government denied attacking the water processing facility, saying it would not set out to harm its own population. Still, it would not be the first time it struck its own facilities: government strikes hit pumping stations in the northern city of Aleppo in April, September, and November last year.

The battle for resources has always been an undercurrent to the war. The Syrian government, in particular, has advertised its efforts to keep electricity and water flowing to areas under its control, while it blocks the UN and other relief agencies from supplying opposition zones. However, rarely has that struggle been so starkly felt inside the capital. Damascus, the seat of al-Assad’s power, has been spared from the widespread destruction in other parts of the country, though rebels on the outskirts occasionally fire mortar rounds into the city. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have flocked to the capital seeking its relative security, swelling its population from 2 million to 4 million, according to the UN. For its residents, the water cuts are a grueling reminder of the war beyond. “If this goes on, I will rent a room at a hotel just to take a shower,” said a 60-year-old woman carrying a pair of buckets back to her apartment on the sixth floor of a walk-up building.

MORE

 

[Moonglow]

homegrown missiles

I'd like to see that missile farm....

 

[irosie91]

homegrown missiles

I'd like to see that missile farm....

let me know if farmland is required------can I do the growing in a flower pot?---
I am limited in my use of LAND-----(being an apartment dweller)

 

[Moonglow]

homegrown missiles

I'd like to see that missile farm....

let me know if farmland is required------can I do the growing in a flower pot?---
I am limited in my use of LAND-----(being an apartment dweller)

I do think they have a Chia version..

 

[irosie91]

homegrown missiles

I'd like to see that missile farm....

let me know if farmland is required------can I do the growing in a flower pot?---
I am limited in my use of LAND-----(being an apartment dweller)

I do think they have a Chia version..

does it explode with sufficient energy to embed chia seeds into the victims
flesh?