Syria fighting worse since call for truce: UN

DAMASCUS: Fighting has only worsened in Syria in the week since the United Nations called for a month-long ceasefire, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Damascus warned Monday.

The UN made an urgent plea last Tuesday for warring sides in Syria to temporarily lay down their arms to allow for aid deliveries to desperate civilians. The UN Security Council failed to back the appeal last week but was to consider a new draft on a 30-day pause on Monday.Hours before the talks, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Syria, Ali al-Zaatari, renewed the plea.

“Since our statement of 6 February, when the UN representatives in Syria called for a one-month cessation of hostilities, the situation has worsened,” Zaatari said in an emailed statement. “We are witnessing some of the worst fighting of the entire conflict, with reports of hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries, massive displacement and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities,” he added.

Over the past week, Syrian government planes have pounded the opposition-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, as rebels fired rockets and mortars down on the capital.A Turkish-led offensive in northwest Syria has continued to displace families along the northern border. “We keep stressing our message, that this terrible suffering of the Syrian people must stop. They have already borne the brunt of this brutal conflict,” Zaatari said. “I am again appealing to all parties, and those with influence over them, to listen to us and to the affected population: end this intolerable human suffering,” he said.

Anti-IS coalition to weigh fate of captured foreign jihadists: The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group meet in Rome Tuesday to discuss the fate of foreign jihadists held in Syria, including two Britons who carried out brutal beheadings.

They are among thousands of jihadists captured by US-backed Syrian fighters as IS fled its so-called “caliphate” following months of intense fighting that saw the liberation of the group’s “capital” Raqa last year. The thorny issue of what to do with the foreigners has sparked intense debate in the West, with France calling for them to be tried in situ by their captors. US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told reporters as he headed to Rome on Sunday to meet with 13 of his coalition counterparts that the battle to eradicate IS was ongoing.