Terrorists Sabotage Humanitarian Pause With Hostages and Human Shields; Civilian Casualties Mount
Today in Syria, Eastern Ghouta militants opened mortar fire over the road that is supposed to be used by civilians to flee. Extremists do everything to disrupt the humanitarian pause, in effect, this morning they started using people as human shields.
Anton Stepanenko, a military correspondent, is on the firing line right now.
Here's the footage he passed on to us. This is a humanitarian passage in Vafidin, a road that's 70 meters long. Almost all of its parts are well visible, as well as the militants' locations. They are about 100-150 meters away from here. This is the only transfer point from Eastern Ghouta to Damascus. Syrian Army calls it Point 95. Russia and Syria suggested the militants let go of the civilians right here, on this spot.
To achieve this, a cease-fire regime was introduced from 9 AM to 2 PM daily. This footage shows the final stage of preparation for the humanitarian pause. The Syrian Army spread thousands of flyers through the residential areas of Eastern Ghouta to make sure that people are informed that they can safely escape the militants. Here is what this flyer looks like. Syrian soldiers spread them over the residential areas of Eastern Ghouta. It clearly states the location of the transfer point and the conditions to be followed to use this passage. One of them is that the civilian must raise their hand with the flyer when approaching the passage for the soldiers to see.
Not far from the transfer point, an assembly point was located. It has passenger buses, a lot of people were expected.
Aleksandr Horoshaylo, Medical Ft. Lt.: "Civilians lacked medical assistance for a long time. Therefore, the doctors are prepared to provide emergency medical care".
The area of Eastern Ghouta is over 100 sq. km. There are 3 towns: Douma, Harasta, and Jobar, plus the villages. According to careful estimates, it may be defended by up to 10,000 militants.
This footage is taken from our drone. From above, it's clearly visible that the entire front end of the extremists' defense line is dug up with passages and tunnels, and has plenty of hiding spaces. For the past week, the transfer point has been under regular mortar fire.
Viktor Pankov, head of the de-escalation zone group: "Currently, we're under intense fire from the militants. So far, no civilian has made it through the humanitarian passage."
Yury Evtushenko, head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation: "During the humanitarian pause, militants continued to attack the government forces, around villages of Hazrama and Nashabia. 13 hours later, they started attacking in other directions, too. This was accompanied by intensive artillery and rifle fire".
Syrian Air Force and Artillery didn't fire back. Militants opening fire aren't the only problem. The thing is that the adjoined passages are controlled by the Jaysh al-Islam group. It's up to them whether the people will be able to go to Damascus. However, the humanitarian passage will reopen tomorrow. For 5 hours, Syrian Forces will stop all combat action against extremists.
Anton Stepanenko, Artyom Grigoryan, Aleksandr Pushin. Vesti, Vafidin transfer point, Syria.