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Intense Clashes in Ashrafiat Sahnaaya and Rising Number of Casualties
Armed clashes erupted between groups considered part of the Syrian opposition factions and local groups in the city of Ashrafiat Sahnaaya in the rural Damascus governorate for the second consecutive day.
The official Syrian news agency (SANA) reported today, Wednesday, April 30, that the number of fatalities due to attacks by lawless groups on civilians and security forces in the city has reached 11, in addition to several injuries, according to the media office of the Ministry of Health.
Four journalists residing in Ashrafiat Sahnaaya told the locally focused website, Enab Baladi, that the clashes began on Tuesday evening, April 29, and are still ongoing at the time of this report. The journalists, who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons, explained that the attacks began from the southern part of the city near the "Arab Bank" at the southern entrance.
One journalist, who lost contact while searching for a safe place, noted that shells continue to fall on residential neighborhoods, with no known source.
Two of the journalists pointed out that there are no hospitals in the area, despite the presence of some small health centers that do not meet the needs. Meanwhile, teams from the “Red Crescent” are transporting the injured to hospitals outside the area, bypassing “Public Security” checkpoints towards Damascus.
Emergency response teams have been unable to enter the city from outside, while ambulances from the “Red Crescent” center in Ashrafiat Sahnaaya are regularly transporting the injured, according to the journalists.
The journalists reported that “Public Security” checkpoints prevented anyone from entering the area via the road leading to Daraa governorate and have established additional security barriers around it to prevent the escalation of clashes.
Local news pages monitored the continuation of the confrontations, with the page “Al-Rasid” reporting that tens of thousands of residents of Sahnaaya and Ashrafiat Sahnaaya are facing a fierce attack, accompanied by the influx of “radical factions” to launch a new offensive.
The “Sahnaaya News Network” stated via Facebook that a curfew has been imposed in Sahnaaya until 5 PM due to the clashes.
This tension in the Sahnaaya area is an extension of a similar attack on the town of Jaramana in rural Damascus, which erupted following the circulation of an offensive video recording about the Prophet Muhammad, attributed to one of the Druze community’s sheikhs, who later denied the attribution.
In response to the attack on Jaramana, a government delegation met with the town's sheikhs, and a series of points were agreed upon to de-escalate the situation. The “Jaramana News Network” reported that the official Mohammed Ali Amer attended the meeting as a representative of the governor of rural Damascus, Amer Sheikh, along with the head of political affairs, Ahmad Ta'ama, and representatives from the local civil society in the city.
