REPORT: Truce in besieged Damascus suburb may bring food to starving residents

Syrian government forces and rebel fighters in a besieged Damascus suburb have agreed to a 48-hour truce that could result in food being allowed in for residents threatened with starvation, activists said on Thursday.
   
Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels occupied Mouadamiya last year and the government has been trying to win it back since with a siege that has choked off food, medicine and fuel.
   
Children have died from malnutrition in the town, and thousands of people face starvation. Some have resorted to eating leaves to survive.
   
The fragile ceasefire in Mouadamiya, 10 km (6 miles) southwest of the capital, began on Wednesday with the raising of a government flag on the town's tallest building.
   
If the truce holds until Friday, the army has said it will allow food in.
   
The ceasefire is unlikely to be repeated in other parts of Syria where more radical rebel groups operate, but it raises the prospect of a respite from violence and hunger in one of the country's most hard-hit areas.
   
An activist close to the deal told Reuters negotiations had been conducted between the FSA military councils and local members of the government's military and political departments.
   
If the truce holds and the government provides access to food, the activist said, a broader agreement could be implemented which might include the rebels giving up heavy weapons.
   
"The regime said it wanted the heavy weapons like the tanks and cannons," he said. "It also said that it is willing to buy these weapons and pay for them," he added. "There are no guarantees from either side. This is war."


Funeral held for British doctor who died in Syria

Mourners gathered at a central London mosque Thursday for the funeral of a British doctor who died while in Syrian government custody.
    
Dr. Abbas Khan, a 32-year-old orthopedic surgeon, died just days before he was apparently due to be released from detention.  The circumstances remain in dispute. The Syrian government said he took his own life, but his family in Britain rejects the claim.
     
The British government has said the Syrian government is responsible.
     
"My brother, to us, was our star. His star shone on our family," his brother, Shahnawaz Khan, said at the Regent's Park Mosque.
     
The 32-year-old Khan was detained in Aleppo in November 2012 after he entered Syria to work in a hospital. His family was told of his death 10 days ago.
    
Prime Minister David Cameron criticized the Syrian regime for its "despicable" treatment of Khan and its refusal to work with the British government to release him.
     
"Abbas' death is a sickening and appalling tragedy, and it is right that the Syrian regime should answer for it," Cameron wrote to the Khan family in the letter, which was released Sunday.
     
Khan's family has criticized the British government for not doing more to secure Khan's release.
     
An inquest is scheduled to begin Friday.
 
Family lawyer Nabeel Sheikh said after the funeral prayers that the family would decide what if any legal action to pursue once the inquest has been concluded.

 
 
REUTERS/AP

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