Foreign Ministry Letter to UNSC Chairman, UN Secretary on Terrorist Organizations Re-Shelling Damascus

DAMASCUS, (ST) _ The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry extended yesterday two identical letters to each of the Chairman of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary-General on terrorists targeting the city of Damascus with scores rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

The ministry said in its two letters that since  early morning of Thursday February 5, 2015 terrorists targeted Damascus with dozens of random rocket-propelled grenades and mortars in conjunction children and students going to their schools and universities, employees and workers to their work as armed terrorist groups fired more 115 rocket-propelled grenade at the city of Damascus, 6 missiles on Lattakia and 9 shells on Aleppo, targeting civilian homes, schools, universities, near government and diplomatic and UN organizations headquarters, resulted in killing 26 persons and wounding 48 others, including children, women and elderly in the initial outcome and heavy material damage in private and public property.

In its statement, the ministry noted that terrorist Zahran Aloush leader of the so-called Army of Islam, the terrorist arm which is especially funded by Saudi Arabia, at the support of several western countries had announced on February 3, 2015 through social networks “that Damascus is an area for military operations” and urged “all the civilians and members of diplomatic missions and school and university students not to approach any of the regime’s headquarters or walk in the streets during working hours, starting from the Wednesday morning until further notice. “

The statement added that the recent terrorist acts are part of a series of similar bombings against Aleppo and Lattakia by armed terrorist groups including “Daesh”, “Al-Nusra Front “, “the Army of Islam” and “Hazem movement”, “the Damascene Front” and other al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist organizations hired by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and “Israel.”

The statement also described these terrorist acts as part of the brutal crimes including slaughtering the two Japanese citizens Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa and burning the Jordanian pilot Muaz Kasasbeh alive.

The ministry went on that such systematic brutal crimes by armed terrorist organizations require the UN Security Council and Secretary-General to take necessary action in condemning these terrorist acts and to cooperate with the Syrian Government in its war on terrorism and to put pressure on terrorism sponsoring states, for the immediate cessation of support, funding and training of these armed terrorist groups to stop the flow of foreign terrorists fighters to Syria, according to international legitimacy resolutions, especially UN Security Council Resolution 2178 of 2014 and to include the so-called “Army of Islam” and “Islamic Front” on terrorists list.

“The Syrian government stresses that these terrorist acts will not succeed in discouraging the Syrian people, government and the army in the fight against terrorism and its organizations as they have been paralyzing their lives, standing firm since four years in the face of terrorism targeting the Syrian people’s  values, principles of tolerance and own existence,”  the statement concluded.

T. Fateh