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28 International THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, March 16, 2017

DOUMA, Syria--Ziad, a vides physical and psycho- from the centre because he
paralysed 14-year-old boy, logical treatment. lacks vehicles equipped to
often stays alone in his There are an estimated transport them. Paralysed
room as bombs fall on Dou- 500 people with spinal in- patients, often battling
ma, the main rebel-strong- juries in eastern Ghouta, poor mental health, tend
hold in eastern Ghouta on almost all casualties of the to live at home where they
the outskirts of the Syrian six-year war. The centre, feel more comfortable.
capital Damascus. currently funded entirely by “Many people suffer psy-
Limited in scope, num- donations, can treat 12 pa- chological trauma after an
ber and size, there are no tients at a time for a course injury, which makes them
nearby shelters equipped of three to six months. come late to treatment.
to receive Ziad who cannot Khalid Al-Hallaj, a phys- This worsens their condi-
be moved quickly or easily iotherapist who runs the tion and prolongs the time
during airstrikes because centre, says obstacles to it takes to treat them,” he Ziad (R), 14, who has a spinal cord injury, is pushed on a wheelchair by his friend along a
of his spinal injuries. “The rehabilitating patients in said. street in Douma, the main rebel-stronghold in eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus,
shelters are not ready to the midst of the conflict are Unlike most patients, Abu Syria, February 21, 2017.
accept people like me,” he formidable. Supplies are Zeid lives inside the cen-
said. scarce, especially mobility tre. After his injury, the minder of what he endured Zeid now has limited mo- “The doctors say I will
Until last year, treatment chairs and physiotherapy 23-year-old, whose family and a marked contrast with bility, can visit the toilet by walk again, but I need to be
options were limited for spi- exercise equipment. The lives in a government-con- his condition today. Having himself and is even hopeful patient and exercise a lot,”
nal patients caught in a bru- makeshift centre also lacks trolled area, tried to com- received treatment, Abu he will walk again. he said.
tal civil war that has killed adequate facilities to re- mit suicide as he struggled
hundreds of thousands of ceive patients, with only to cope with extreme physi-
people and displaced more one entrance for wheel- cal pain and come to terms
than 11 million. Now, the chairs and no safety exits or with needing help for basic
Specialist Centre for the shelters in case of shelling. self-care.
Rehabilitation and Care of Al-Hallaj also struggles Deep, crater-like scars on
Spinal Cord Injuries pro- to transfer patients to and Abu Zeid’s arms are a re-
BEIRUT--Two suicide Damascus to the west of with the sixth anniversary
bomb attacks killed at least the first attack causing sev- of the protests that sparked
31 people and wounded eral casualties, state media Syria’s civil war, attackers
dozens more in Damascus reported. State news agency also twice struck the gov-
on Wednesday, state me- SANA cited the Damascus ernment-held city of Homs
dia reported, in the second police as saying that there in the past few weeks.
such spate of bombings in were 102 injured in the On Saturday scores of
the Syrian capital in five courthouse attack and 28 people, most of them Iraqi
days. injured in the restaurant. Shi’ite pilgrims, were killed
The first suicide bomber Analysts who follow Syria in a double suicide attack
targeted the Palace of Jus- have predicted that as ji- in Damascus claimed by an
tice, the main courthouse in hadist rebels fighting to alliance of jihadist groups
central Damascus near the oust President Bashar al- known as Tahrir al-Sham.
Old City. Justice Minister Assad suffer military re- Their military chief, the
Najem al-Ahmad told re- verses, they will increasing- former al Qaeda leader in
porters the initial death toll ly turn to guerrilla attacks Syria, Abu Mohammad al
was 31, mostly civilians. in territory controlled by Golani, had vowed more
The second suicide blast the government. As well as attacks after claiming mul-
struck a popular restaurant the Damascus bombings of tiple suicide attacks in the
in the al-Rabweh area of recent days, which coincide city of Homs last month.
The courthouse bomber
set off his explosive device
at 1:20 p.m. as the police
tried to search him and
stop him from entering the
building, state television
cited the Damascus police
chief as saying. Syrian state
television broadcast foot-
age from inside the court-
house showing blood splat-
tered on a floor littered
with papers, a shoe and bro-
ken tiles and stones. Images
from a hospital showed a
man in a suit on a stretcher
with blood on his clothes.
The explosion hit the court-
house “at a time when the
area is crowded” with law-
yers, judges and civilians,
harming a large number of
people, Ahmed al-Sayyid,
a senior state legal official
told state-run al-Ikhbariya
TV. He later added that 45
people had been wounded.
No further details were im-
mediately available.