Sunday, 4 March 2018

walking to paradise / Joseph Ceravolo: Perpetual | Sanctus Death Twig Insect Purification Ritual (where the red carpet ends)

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8791 | by pkomo

8791: photo by Petros Kotzabasis, 17 November 2017

9373 | by pkomo

9373: photo by Petros Kotzabasis, 23 January 2006

Untitled | by pratyay

Untitled {Brick factory, Amin Bazar, Bangladesh]: photo by pratyay, 28 February 2018

Untitled | by pratyay
 
Untitled {Brick factory, Amin Bazar, Bangladesh]: photo by pratyay, 28 February 2018

Untitled | by pratyay

Syrian government forces capture villages of eastern Ghouta: Hopes of aid entering besieged enclave dashed as Assad’s forces seize more territory: Peter Beaumont, The Guardian, 4 March 2018

Forces loyal to the Syrian president,  Bashar al-Assad, have captured six villages and towns bordering the besieged rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta, as hopes that a long-planned humanitarian convoy might enter the area were dashed again.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitor, confirmed the latest advances, saying pro-regime government forces had seized roughly a quarter of the enclave on the outskirts of Damascus in recent days.

“Most of it is farms and there are few towns in [the captured area],” said the Observatory’s director, Rami Abdulrahman.

The latest fighting took place as UN aid officials said they had not been given permission from Syrian officials for 40 trucks carrying supplies to reach the town of Douma, despite optimism earlier in the week that the convoy would be allowed to enter.

Condemning the lack of access, the UN’s regional humanitarian coordinator, Panos Moumtzis, said in a statement on Sunday: “One week after the UN security council voted in favour of resolution 2401, calling for a one-month cessation of hostilities across the war-ravaged country, not only has this not happened, in some cases the violence has escalated, particularly for the close to 400,000 men, women and children of [eastern] Ghouta.

“Instead of a much-needed reprieve, we continue to see more fighting, more death, and more disturbing reports of hunger and hospitals being bombed. This collective punishment of civilians is simply unacceptable,” he added.

Some of the heaviest fighting on Sunday was concentrated in the area of Beit Sawa on the eastern edge of the densely populated centre of eastern Ghouta, where civilians fled clashes between government forces and Jaysh al-Islam, one of three main rebel groups.

Thousands in the encircled area have been sheltering in freezing basements and underground shelters in an attempt to escape from the daily bombardment.
 
Neemat Mohsen, who heads the local women’s office in Saqba, another town in eastern Ghouta, told the Associated Press that in some shelters 350 or more people lived with no running water and no electricity.

“In our street, over 500 metres there are only three basements. They have to house all the families there. We feel the prison shrinking. We were first besieged in an enormous prison called eastern Ghouta, now we are trapped in shelters similar to tombs,” Mohsen said. “We are living real terror 24 hours a day.”

The reports of conditions inside the enclave came as pro-Assad forces continued to make gains. A reporter from the Syrian state-run Al Ekhbariya TV, accompanying troops, broadcast from Nashabiyah, a village on the south-eastern edge of eastern Ghouta.
 
The reporter said Syrian troops had crossed a “moat” and seized about 12 sq km (4.6 sq miles) in an advance backed by intense shelling and airstrikes.

Encircled by regime-controlled territory and unable or unwilling to flee, residents have been subjected to one of the most ferocious assaults of Syria’s civil war in recent weeks, including airstrikes and rocket and artillery bombardment.

The violence comes on top of critical shortages of food and medicines and a catastrophic collapse of medical care amid the targeting of hospitals and first responders.

However, despite mounting international pressure on Syria and its backer, Russia, to allow access for aid and the evacuation of the wounded and civilians, a promised daily five-hour humanitarian pause has failed to materialise as forces loyal to Assad continued to press their assault.

The latest fighting came as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the UN secretary general, António Guterres, expressed “grave concern” about the humanitarian situation in the area in a telephone conversation late on Saturday.

“The UN convoys must immediately deliver medical assistance and food aid to the besieged population,” the French president said.

On Sunday, Macron asked his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani to put pressure on the Syrian government to end the attacks and allow humanitarian aid in. Tehran is a key backer of the Syrian regime.


El enclave rebelde de Guta Oriental en Siria sigue esperando ayuda #AFP por @hasanmohammed89: image via Agence France-Presse @AFPespanol, 2 March 2018



A picture taken on March 3, 2018 shows the ten-year-old Syrian child Mariam Othman (L), who was rescued from the rubble of a building hit by reported regime bombardment and whose face was damaged, sitting in a hospital in Zamalka, near Syria's capital Damascus Photo @amer_almohibany: image via Amer_almohibany @amer_almohibany, 3 March 2018
 

My older brother, my eyes, [with] which I see, and my strength, which helps me in my life Two days later he was in intensive care after being wounded and shrapnel of missiles of hatred and treachery #EasternGhouta : image via Belal Kharpotly @belalkh, 4 March 2018


My old brother Join the convoy of martyrs walking to paradise #EasternGhouta: image via Belal Kharpotly @belalkh, 4 March 2018

Untitled | by clairebrinberg

 Untitled: photo by Claire Grinberg, 6 February 2018

Untitled | by clairebrinberg

 Untitled: photo by Claire Grinberg, 6 February 2018

Untitled | by clairebrinberg
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