DOUMA, Syria – Footage from Monday showed a massive labyrinth of underground tunnels used by the Jaish al-Islam militant group sprawling under the recently-liberated Douma in Eastern Ghouta.
“The warehouse in Douma is like a city beneath a city… tunnel upon tunnel, even extending to the other [Western] Ghouta,” a local said.
According to one resident of Douma, rebels starved the locals to force them to work on the tunnels’ clearance and reinforcement.
“It took about a month or two to move the rubble and reinforce these locations,” he said.
“They [the Jaish al-Islam militant group] starved us, besieged us, they traded in our blood. As you see, these tunnels are massive…They had captives work on them, as well as civilians. They wouldn’t feed those who wouldn’t work,” another resident added.
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