Snipers disrupt Yarmouk humanitarian evacuation

TRAPPED IN YARMOUK: An attempt on Wednesday to evacuate civilians and the wounded from Yarmouk refugee camp in south Damascus, the first opening of the sealed-off camp in the past six months, failed after a sniper hit a prominent citizen in the chest.

The Palestinian Popular National Committee, an organization that is responsible for running the camp while remaining neutral towards the Syrian civil war, announced on Tuesday that 300 sick people would be allowed to exit the camp. Rebels have been holed up in the besieged camp, using it as a base while regime forces fire on it from the outside and maintain a blockade around it.

As the evacuation got underway, the head of that committee, known as Abu Basel, was shot in the chest by a sniper, according to Palestinian news agency Fajir Press, which added that “Abu Basel was shot by a sniper from the Syrian [regime] security to stop the evacuation of the sick from the camp.”

Camp residents loyal to the regime accused armed insurgents in the camp of ruining the evacuation of elderly, sick and university students, according to the pro-government al-Watan daily.

Video courtesy of Fajir Press.