Somber Eid in Jobar amidst government campaign

NO EID IN JOBAR: A young girl in the formerly rebel-held, now contested East Damascus neighborhood of Jobar dons festive Eid clothing [a religious holiday that runs October 4-7], under the caption “I want to go to Eid, but there is no Eid in Jobar…Happy New Year.”

“Bashar al-Assad is bombing us…Bashar didn’t leave us any Eid,” the girl continues, in a video clip circulated Tuesday by pro-opposition channel Syria al-Ghad.

The Syrian army recently began a new ground campaign to separate the neighborhood of Jobar from the adjacent rebel-held East Ghouta town of Zamalka, in order to cut off rebel supply lines and close off entry and exit points, reported pro-regime Al-Hadath news Wednesday.

“Battles are heating up” as the Syrian army “advances” into the neighborhood and “the air force pounds militants’ locations.”

Jobar is the closest rebel-held area to Damascus, situated just east of the Abbasid Square, and serves as a gateway into East Ghouta, the FSA stronghold east of Damascus city that is the epicenter of opposition power in the region. 

The neighborhood has witnessed fighting between rebels and government forces since the beginning of 2012. The regime intensified shelling and airstrikes on Jobar after rebels took control of the majority of the neighborhood in early 2014, before launching an all-out campaign to capture the district on August 28.

In one video interview uploaded to YouTube in November 2013, activists talk to children in Jobar about the difficulties of living in a war zone shortly before a shell lands next to the group, sending the children and interviewer running for cover.

-October 8, 2014

-Photo courtesy of Children of Syria.

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