WORLD_ SYRIA_ Assad in trouble as Islamists seize main oilfield and 11,000 children reported killed

Assad in trouble as Islamists seize main oilfield and 11,000 children reported killed

Pressure mounts on President Assad as Islamist rebels take control of Syria's main oilfield, and a London-based group says 11,500 children have been killed in the fighting




Syrians look at the aftermath of airstrikes by government forces on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, a day after at least 29 people were killed in the city as rebels captured a key oilfield. Photo: AFP/Getty Images


By Ruth Sherlock, in Beirut and Magdy Samaan in Cairo
7:27PM GMT 24 Nov 2013


Islamist rebels led by al-Qaeda have taken control of the largest oilfield in Syria, boosting their own economic power whilst severing President Bashar al-Assad's access to almost all the crude oil reserves in the country.

Civilians in the area confirmed to The Telegraph that militants led by Jabhat al-Nusra, a group proscribed by the United States for its affiliation to al-Qaeda, had taken the oilfield in the eastern Deir Ezzor province, after a video was posted online showing rebels driving a tank under a sign that read "Euphrates Oil Company - al-Omar field".

Local residents said on Sunday that they feared being targeted for government airstrikes after the takeover of the al-Omar oil field, which broke a deal between the Assad regime and rebels in the area.

"Before the rebels only took oil from the pipeline outside of al-Omar, and, in exchange for not attacking the plant itself, the regime continued to allow gas and electricity supplies to reach our towns," said a resident, who gave the pseudonym Reem.

"Now we are afraid we will be targeted for airstrikes, or that the regime will have no reason not to cut our electricity.


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"We are angry at Nusra and the rebels, we don't believe they are doing this for our freedom. They are thieves who got greedy and wanted more money," she added.

Islamist and al-Qaeda affiliated groups in the east of the country have in the past year drawn much financial power and influence by selling crude, badly refined, fuel to both civilians in rebel held areas and to parts of the country under regime control.

Peter Harling, a senior analyst with International Crises Group said the oil field takeover was most significant in how it aided the ascendency of al-Qaeda affiliated groups. The regime itself, he said, has already stopped relying on domestic oil supplies: "Many officials couldn't care less about the east of the country, in which they have lost interest for now: they depend on other sources".

The London-based Oxford Research Group said more than 11,000 children have died in nearly three years of conflict in Syria, including hundreds killed under torture or in summary executions.

The new report, entitled 'Stolen Futures - the Hidden Toll of Child Casualties in Syria', provides some of the most distressing figures to emerge from ongoing civil war.

Of the 11,420 victims aged 17 and under, most, more than 70 per cent died from "explosive weapons", air strikes and artillery shells fired on civilian areas.

However, 764 of the children were summarily executed, and more than 100 children - including infants, died under torture, the report says. A further 389 boys and girls were killed by sniper fire, and most of those, the report claims, are unlikely to be accidental.

"The conflict in Syria has had a catastrophic effect on the country's children. Besides the many whose lives and futures have been stolen from them, many more will have been injured, maimed, psychologically impacted, uprooted from their homes and orphaned," the report said.

This weekend saw some of the bloodiest fighting to hit the Syrian capital, with more than 160 people reportedly killed in front line battles, as rebel groups mounted a new offensive to break a year long siege by the regime on parts of the Damascus suburbs.

"Battles in East Ghouta are still going on, specially close to the International Airport," said Mossab Al-Khair, spokesman for the Military Council in Damascus.

"Thank God, the revolutionaries are advancing from one area to another."



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