The residents of the Barada town in the Syrian capital Damascus are becoming the new victims of the intense attacks of Iran and the Russia-backed Bashar al-Assad regime, after regime forces launched intense attacks which concluded with the evacuation of the Aleppo neighborhood which was controlled by moderate opposition fighters.
Barada, where around 100,000 people are currently living, is a key region, as the main water source of Damascus is there. The non-governmental organizations stress the high possibility of Barada turning into an Aleppo, as Assad forces have been launching intense attacks for six days.
The Barada town is located 16 kilometers from the center of Damascus and 12 kilometers from the Lebanon border.
In July, the Hezbollah and regime forces attempted to take the control of the town; however, the town, which is surrounded by the Suk Wadi Barada, Kafr al-Avamid, Huseyniye, Deyr Law, Kefr az-Zait, Ayn al-Hadra, Besime, Deyr Makran, Ayn al-Fija and Afra villages, is being controlled by the moderate opposition.
Since the beginning of the intense clashes, as many as 20 regime soldiers were killed, while three regime tanks were destroyed by the moderate opposition.
The local sources said that as many as 30 civilians were killed in the last six days during the clashes between regime forces and opposition.
"The regime attacked the town with around 80 barrel bombs and violated the agreement that guaranteed that no clash would be occurring in the region," a local activist Radvan Ali Basha said.
"The Assad regime tries to force the residents to leave their houses as it did in Aleppo," Basha added.
The inhumane attacks of the regime are not targeting only the civilians, but also the mosques and hospitals.
The non-governmental organizations highlighted the importance of the protection of the Ain al-Fija due to being the main source of Damascus' water.
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Russia and the Iran-backed Assad regime intensified its attacks on the Syrian province of Aleppo, on November 15, although it had been launching attacks on the city for weeks.
The heavy bombardment was followed by the evacuation of thousands of people from the opposition-controlled part of the city, as a result of international efforts.
As the last cortege was evacuated from the moderate opposition-held districts of Aleppo, air strikes resumed in opposition-held areas of the countryside near Aleppo on Friday for the first time since the end of an operation this week to evacuate, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday.
It is estimated that more than 600,000 people have been killed in Syrian Civil War as Turkish Foreign Ministry declared that figure recently.
