Red Crescent loses 31 volunteers in Syria conflict

Damascus – The Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) declared Tuesday that 31 of its workers had lost their lives during the country’s long-lingering conflict.

SARC said the last staffer was killed a day earlier while transporting an injured person in the countryside of Syria’s capital Damascus, Xinhua reported citing an official statement.

Hassan Saleh Barakeh, head of the Irneh suburb branch, was gunned down by a sniper shot while attempting to rescue an injured person from Irneh, the statement said, adding that Barakeh was driving an ambulance that holds the emblem of SARC.

SARC, which recently put the death toll among its volunteers at 22, said it updated the casualty toll after reviewing the records of its volunteers in sub-branches in al-Rastan and Talbiesh areas in the central province of Homs.

The country’s deadly conflict has spared no aspect of activities without leaving scares, including the humanitarian field.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has recently felt the chill down its spine when some of its staff members were snatched in rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

The Syrian government, while accusing the Western-backed rebels of hindering humanitarian activities nationwide, stressed Monday that it would do its utmost to facilitate the humanitarian work across the war-torn country.