Factory bombed in Spayneh, 200 jobs lost

April 12, 2013

By Ahmed Kwider

Shells slammed into a packaging and printing facility in the Outer Damascus town of Spayneh on Friday as opposition activists noted the strong ties between the facility’s proprietors and the government that destroyed it.

“The bombing started at midnight. When I woke up this morning I saw a lot of smoke above the area of Spayneh,”said Faris al-Ahmad, a Syrian-Palestinian who lives in the nearby town of Kiswa.

The Daboul family owns the factory, with Mazen Daboul at its CEO. He is a relative of Abo Saleem Daboul, the former chief of staff for President Bashar Assad.

It was not clear who bombed the plastic factory, as no group took responsibility for it. Eyewitness Faris al-Ahmed and other activists blamed the regime.

“The government army controls the area and has it locked down with checkpoints,” al-Ahmad said. “This is the eighth factory to be targeted by the army, who say that FSA fighters were in it,” he explained.

“More than 200 people work at that factory and that’s 200 families who lost income,” al-Ahmad said.

The Spayneh LCC reported the entire main printing line burned along with two floors of commercial and administrative space after the Air Defense Brigade based near Kiswa bombed the area.

“All fire fighters were mobilized to deal with the large fire,” said Spayneh Fire Department Colonel Fawzi Mofleh, who reported that it took three hours to douse the flames.