By: Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
Damascus residents were awoken from sleep to sounds and flashes of bright lights from the attacks. Regardless of the numerous attacks, the civilian populations are held hostage to the Israeli military and their relentless attacks which cause emotional distress on innocent people sleeping in their own homes, while trying to survive in a collapsed economy which has pushed the majority to the poverty line.
The US has strangled the Syrian civilians with years of sanctions which have prevented pharmacies and hospitals from ordering special medicines from US and European manufacturers. For example, in a case last month, a woman in Syria had a case of ocular herpes (herpes virus attack in the eye) and the required injections of a medicine made in France were unavailable due to US and EU sanctions.
While the US sanctions deprive Syrian civilians from medicines, the US military is occupying the northeast of Syria and has confiscated the oil produced at the largest production wells. This has translated into chronic gasoline shortages and long lines at the gas pumps, sometimes for days.
The US supports the Kurdish militia, SDF and YPG, which are considered by Turkey to be linked to the outlawed terrorists group PKK, responsible for 30,000 deaths in Turkey over decades. Although the US government is anti-communist, the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria is run under strict communist political ideology and supported by the White House and US Congress.
The Syrian government condemned the Monday attack and requested the UN Security Council to take action to prevent further Israeli attacks on Syria.
This latest attack on Damascus, the oldest capital in the world, targeted areas near Damascus International Airport, Dimas Airport and Kisweh causing deaths, injuries and property damage.
The attack was launched from the Golan Heights, which is Syrian land according to international agreements, but is occupied by Israel since 1967. The local population is living under a brutal and long lasting military occupation. During the Trump regime, the US recognized the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights, contrary to UN resolutions.
Syrian air defenses intercepted the Israeli missiles and shot down some of them according to a Syrian military source reporting to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
Israeli forces attacked seven targets in Damascus in July. They were said to include warehouses used by the Lebanese Resistance group and other allies of the Syrian military.
Israel has attacked Syria hundreds of times over the years, and all have been unprovoked attacks on a sovereign state. In every case but one, Syria has never retaliated and attacked Israel. In fact, Syria has been fighting terrorists who could have threatened the security of Israel, and Syria has kept their borders with Israel secure. However, in the armed conflict which began in Syria in 2011, which was a failed US-NATO plan for regime change, armed Radical Islamic terrorists with Jibhat al Nusra, the Al Qaeda affiliate, crossed into Israel from the Golan Heights to receive medical treatment in the Israeli public hospitals, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally made bedside visits to injured terrorists.
By 2015, terrorists had occupied large swaths of land across Syria. Iran, Russia and the Lebanese Resistance group all were called upon to participate in the liberation of Syria, as well as the fight against terrorists, including the ISIS.
President Trump would have you believe his administration defeated ISIS across Iraq and Syria, but in reality it was a large international effort by Iraq, Iran, Russia and Syria which defeated the group.
On July 19, Israeli air strikes near Damascus killed three Syrian soldiers and wounded four others.
On June 14, Israel carried out air strikes near Damascus wounding a soldier.
In late May, Israeli air strikes hit Damascus wounding five.
Previous Israeli strikes have put both Damascus and Aleppo airports out of service. Both airports are vital international lifelines for humanitarian aid after the February 6 earthquake registering 7.8 and called the earthquake of the century. Those airports are also commercial passenger terminals for Syrians leaving and returning, as well as international aid group delegates and international diplomatic delegations. Experts have expressed shock and concern that Israel could have shot down a fully loaded commercial passenger plan in their air strikes.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
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