Incredible aerial footage of Syria’s capital, Damascus, has emerged showing widespread devastation to a once vibrant city.
The Associated Press reports that the original video was shot by RTR war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny on October 18, noting, “thousands of Syrian army airstrikes and barrel bombs dropped from army helicopters throughout the country’s civil war have reduced entire opposition-held neighborhoods in Syria to rubble. Most are in central and northern Syria, and some are in the eastern suburbs of Damascus where the rebels have been entrenched for several years.” That version of the video can be found here.
Russiaworks.ru, which The Independent reports is a media outlet that has been used to drum up Russian popular support for military intervention abroad has produced a stylized version that has more than one million views since it was posted on YouTube on October 19.
The video shows the Damascus district of Jobar completely in ruin and barely recognizable from other devastated Syrian cities. Jobar is part of the eastern suburbs of Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta, which has been held by rebels for years. The video is the first imagery that shows the scale of destruction from the air.
Several scenes show tanks firing onto buildings, and residents are scarcely found in wide swaths of the capital.
The ruined district of Jobar has been a flashpoint for clashes between rebels and the Syrian Army. According to the Independent, Syrian government forces have attempted to retake Jobar with Moscow’s support.
Writing this week in the National Interest, columnist Fahad Nazer captured Saudi attitudes toward Syria’s embattled leader, Bashar Al-Assad:
“You will see.” That was Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir’s response to a reporter who asked him who would military remove Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria if he refused to leave on his own accord.
Although Jubeir’s terse rejoinder might have been off-the-cuff—he was getting into his car following his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York—the clip of the short interview went viral on Saudi social media. The majority of people who shared it seemed to approve of the defiant tone of the message.
[The entire video can be watched HERE from the UK’s Independent]
