News
Darin Graham
Feb 26, 2018
![Picture:](https://www.indy100.com/media-library/picture.jpg?id=28109331&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=111%2C0%2C111%2C0)
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YouTube screengrab; MUHAMMADNAJEM/TWITTER
A teenager who lives in a besieged area suffering from one of the deadliest bombing campaigns in the Syrian conflictis sharing his experience online to show the world what he sees.
Muhammad Najem who is 15-years-old, says he lives in Eastern Ghouta - a suburb on the edge of Damascus in Syria which the United Nations described as "hell on Earth".
In one of the videos he produced, Muhammad says:
Bashar Al-Assad, Putin and Khaminei killed our childhood. Save us before it is too late.
Eastern Ghouta is home to more than 350,000 people and has been besieged by forces loyal to Syrian President Basha al-Assad for more than four years. In 2013, a chlorine and sarin attack killed up to 1,700 people, widely agreed to be one of the worst chemical incidents in modern history.
Over the last two days, at least 24 people were killed as air strikes and bombs fell on the area despite a 30-day UN ceasefire resolution.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it is “high time to stop this hell on Earth."
Mr Guterres also called for safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services, and evacuations of the sick and wounded.
Muhammed, who wants to become a journalist has live-tweeted images and videos over the last few weeks and shared images of his school which he said was destroyed by warplanes. He wrote:
There are also many schools that were totally destroyed in the Ghouta and now the children of al-Ghouta without education for an unknown reason.
In another video he posted in January, Muhammad stood in silence staring into the camera as smoke rose over buildings behind him.
Some critics, however, have questioned the clips. Jonathan Alpeyrie, a journalist who covered the Syrian conflict toldFrance24:
He says that he’s filming in Eastern Ghouta, but we don’t know anything.
Russia has blamed fighters from al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s former branch in Syria, for provoking the situation in Eastern Ghouta.
The Syrian government and Moscow deny hitting civilians during the siege of Eastern Ghouta.
Additional reporting from AP
More: This journalist called the airstrikes on Syria 'beautiful' and quoted Leonard Cohen
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