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Aerial bombardment kills 15 near Syrian capital

Xinhua, August 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

At least 15 people were killed by Syrian aerial bombardment on a rebel-held area near the capital Damascus, a monitor group reported Sunday.

Women and children were among those killed, when Syrian helicopters reportedly dropped barrel bombs on the Wadi Barada town near Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Tens of others were injured in the aerial shelling, the UK-based watchdog group added.

Pro-government reports said the Syrian warplanes struck positions of the rebels in Wadi Barada, after the rebels there cut off the water from the capital, as Wadi Barada contains the main spring feeding Damascus with drinking water.

Damascus had been deprived of drinking water for 48 hours, before the water started returning before midnight Saturday.

The rebels had cut off the water, demanding the Syrian forces to stop its offensive against the nearby city of Zabadani near the Lebanese borders.

The military response was tough as the military shelling reportedly targeted 140 rebel positions in the town in addition to cutting the electricity and communication in the town, which apparently pushed the rebels eventually to return the pumping the water to Damascus.

Last winter was the best Syria has seen in recent years in terms of the large quantity of precipitation. The storage of water in Damascus was said to would last for two to three years, according to officials in the water directorate.

Over five million people in Damascus drink water flowing from the al-Fijah Water Spring in Wadi Barada, the main water supply of Damascus that gushes out from the town of Ain al-Fijah, some 25 km southwest of Damascus.

The spring's flow reaches up to 25 cubic meters per second in spring time.

Ain al-Figah town fell to Islamist rebels two years ago.

A kind of truce was reached between the authorities and the rebels that the government would allow the entry of food and necessities among other demands and in return the rebels would not cut off the water from Damascus. Endit