Regime pummels Douma, again

MARKING THE DAY: The regime pounded the opposition-controlled city of Douma with at least six airstrikes on Monday on the heels of an escalated aerial attack that killed dozens of civilians the day before, reported Douma’s Local Coordination Committee.

Sunday’s attacks came on the fourth year anniversary of the beginning of the Syrian conflict. 

“The bombings began at 8am [on Sunday] with the regime targeting places where civilians would be in the early morning hours,” Abdul Haq Hmmam, an activist in Douma, told Syria Direct on Monday.

“People try to conduct their business before 11am, when the bombings usually start.”

Dr. Abu Adnan, a member of the United Medical Office, told Syria Direct on Sunday that the death count would likely rise as more are located or succumb to injuries.

The city was hit with five vacuum missiles on Sunday, the LCC reported, which, together with airstrikes, have already killed at least 35 and wounded over 200.

Human Rights Watch wrote in February 2000, quoting a 1993 study by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, that the effect of vacuum missiles “against living targets is unique–and unpleasant…. What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs.”

SANA, Syria’s state run media outlet, did not report the bombing but the city is likely a target because it is the political capital of East Ghouta. All of the opposition-led local governance committees for the area have offices in Douma.

Douma has been under complete regime encirclement since late 2014.

In the past, human rights groups have criticized the regime’s indiscriminate bombing of the city and accused it of deliberately targeting civilians. 

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