EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed her “deep shock” Saturday at confirmed reports of a mortar attack Thursday on Damascus University in the besieged Syrian capital that claimed the lives of at least 15 students.
Condemning the “ruthless act in the strongest terms”, she insisted the latest fatal attack served as “an example of the spiralling violence not shying away from indiscriminate murder of innocent civilians, such as students in this case, which cannot be tolerated”.
Syrian state media confirmed mortar fire had hit the university’s faculty of architecture, with officials blaming rebels for the attack in which of a number people were also injured. AFP news agency reported five other people had been hit by mortar fire in the centre of the capital since last Monday in separate attacks, with UK-based activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claiming several mortar hits on the university had incurred a “large number of injuries”.
Ashton’s reaction followed some days behind that of the US State Department which responded to initial reports of a mortar attack being carried out Thursday, with department spokesman Victoria Nuland telling reporters at a daily press briefing in Washington she was “very concerned about the increased tempo in clashes in the Damascus area, and particularly this reported mortar attack on Damascus University’s faculty of architecture building”.
Refraining from holding either Bashar al Assad’s regime or rebel forces accountable for the attack, she stressed that “all sides need to be absolutely vigilant in avoiding attacks on civilians and to ensure that their actions are in accordance with international law”.
Rebel forces, she added, “need to ensure that their own actions comport with international law, whether it’s in the way they try to defend the Syrian people or whether it’s in the way they treat areas that are liberated or their own prisoners, but they also need to be extremely concerned about those who come offering them weapons and support who don’t have the best interests of the Syrian people at heart”.
UN figures place the total Syrian toll at approximately 70,000 since fighting began two years ago with protests against Assad’s regime, although exact numbers are hard to confirm due to the lack of access to foreign media outlets within Syria.