Shelling of displaced shelter kills 12 neear Damascus

BEIRUT // Pro-Syrian government troops shelled a village in a rebel-controlled area near Damascus on Sunday, killing at least 12 civilians and injuring several others who were taking shelter in a banquet hall.

The violence in the water-rich Barada Valley, which has raged since December 22, has tested the country’s fragile ceasefire and restricted the flow of water to the capital.

Despite an agreement to allow maintenance workers in to fix the water facility in the rebel-controlled valley, the violence continued, also trapping an estimated 100,000 residents.

On Sunday, shells fell on Al Reem banquet hall in Deir Qanoun village in the valley that houses hundreds of civilians who had escaped the intensified fighting.

Heavy clashes erupted after the death of an official who negotiated a deal to restore water to the Syrian capital.

“Fierce fighting broke out after midnight between regime forces, fighters from Hizbollah and the rebels, after gunmen killed the negotiator, Ahmed Al Ghadban,” said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Ghadban had been on his way to the Ain Al Fijeh spring with maintenance teams, he said.

The activist-operated Wadi Barada media centre said 12 were killed and more than 20 were injured. The group posted pictures of the bloodied floors of the hall, some of them showing bodies with severed limbs.

Fuad Abu Hattab, an exiled resident of Barada Valley and an activist with the group, said medical teams have been unable to move around the valley because of the fighting and it is not clear if the dozens of injured are getting any immediate care.

The Syrian civil defence, a team of volunteer first responders in the rebel-held parts of Syria, also put the death toll at 12, saying the shelling hit a displaced people’s centre.

The Observatory said seven people were killed but the death toll was likely to rise because some of the injured were in critical condition.

In recent days, government and allied troops have been advancing in the valley despite talks to stem the violence.

The Lebanese Hizbollah group, which has fighters on the side of the Syrian government, said pro-government troops seized a hill overlooking the water source in the valley on Sunday.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse