We call on the international community to immediately intervene to open safe corridors from besieged eastern Ghouta to Damascus, so that our teams can help save civilians there.

Syrian Civil Defense extends its condolences to the families of the victims of the terrorist attack that targeted a residential area in the Rukn al-Din neighborhood in Damascus on Friday, February 23, 2018.

Testimonies of witnesses as well as the nature and size of the explosion indicate that it was the result of a missile dropped by a Syrian military aircraft.

We fully understand the feelings of pain and suffering and recognize the horror civilians experienced in the region. We face dozens of air strikes by Assad regime on a daily basis targeting eastern Ghouta, we witness and suffer from the terror, destruction and bloodshed of these air strikes.

Our around the clock efforts to save lives in al-Ghouta and other Syrian communities living in the hell of brutal bombardment and collective punishment by Assad regime and Russia, and the deliberate targeting of our teams cannot prevent us from seeking to help our people in Damascus whom we can't reach because we are besieged in Eastern Ghouta by Assad Regime.

We call on the international community to immediately intervene to open safe corridors from besieged eastern Ghouta to Damascus, so that our teams can help save civilians there.

We take the opportunity to condemn the targeting of civilians by any party and any weapon, which is a direct violation of international humanitarian law and a crime for which perpetrators should be held accountable.

The failure of the international community to hold war criminals accountable in Syria is encouraging them to continue targeting civilians by shelling, siege and displacement for the sake of the ambitions of power, and this in itself is a crime that history will remember.

May our martyrs rest in peace and may wounded be healed.

24 February 2018