Starving children told to eat CATS & DOGS

As Muslims around the world celebrate the end of the Eid al-Adha holiday by sharing festive meals and spending time with loved ones, children trapped by the Assad regime in besieged areas around the Syrian capital are being left to starve.

In some areas children have died from severe malnutrition, according to one NGO, and a Muslim cleric has issued a religious ruling allowing the eating of dog and cat meat in an attempt to keep them alive.

In a string of rebel-held areas under a months-long army siege south and east of Damascus, activists say food has all but run out and doctors lack the means to treat their patients.

Believe it or not this boy is one of the lucky ones, having been moved to a refugee camp at Al-Faour.

Speaking to AFP from southern Damascus during the three day festival, Sheikh Saleh al-Khatib said people are eating dog meat out of desperation.

"We issued a religious edict allowing people to eat dog and cat meat. Not because it is religiously permitted, but because it is a reflection of the reality we are suffering," said the Sheikh, who has been on hunger strike for nine days.

"People here have nothing for their children. I am on strike because I want to help save food for others."

"Of course there is no Eid for the children here" said activist Abu Malek in Moadamiyet al-Sham, a suburb southwest of Damascus.

"For them, Eid will come when they see a plate of rice," he added.

Suad Zein, a mother to eight, told CNN that "before the crisis, during Eid, we used to go to the shops and buy items, we were happy. Eid was a wonderful holiday here.

"Now these days I can't even buy my boy a pair of trousers, or shoes, or even a loaf of bread."

A Syrian child in the Idlib province.

Residents of Moadamiyet al-Sham are surviving on herbs and vegetables they have planted - But harvesting the food is dangerous, "and people have died in the orchards because of the shelling", said activist Abu Hadi.

"We no longer have any food in the stockpiles. Everyone is planting in the orchards and the streets," he said, adding that no bread had entered the area for months.

Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed that many children in Moadamiyet al-Sham were malnourished.

"Children are worst off because they need the right kinds of food in order to grow. Adults can survive on whatever they can find, but what about the children?"

And shocking amateur videos distributed by activists from the town showing visibly malnourished children confirm activists worst fears.

One video shows a girl laid out on a stretcher as she's checked over by aid workers. Another shows a girl with her two baby siblings, appealing for help so her family can secure baby milk.

"There is no road... The road is closed... What are we going to do?... We are feeding them milk but it's expired," says the little girl, as the babies cry.

Malnourished Syrian child

The situation is just as bad for children in other rebel-held areas near Damascus.

"On any given day in the emergency room, some four out of 10 patients I see are malnourished children," said Abu Mohammad, a doctor working in a field clinic in the Marj area east of the capital.

"Many children have very low blood pressure, fatigue, dizziness, and a reduced (disease-fighting) white blood cell count. The worst affected by the food shortages are children aged under two years," he added.

The hardest part is not having the right medical equipment or food to fight malnutrition, he told AFP.

"I get depressed in the clinic, because we don't have what we need to fight this."

Also affected is Yarmuk, a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus that has turned into a battleground in recent months.

"Nothing, not even bread or flour has been allowed in for 96 days," according to Palestinian-Syrian activist Ali Abu Khaled, who said he is "lucky to get one small meal a day."

Syrian refugee children play in a poor seaside neighbourhood in Tripoli during Eid al-Adha.

For some, relief came earlier this week, when the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent evacuated 3,500 people from Moadimayet al-Sham with the agreement of the authorities.

But only children, women and old men were able to leave, with the wounded left behind and aid workers prevented from entering the area.

"There are many more, including children, who remain in the town," said Magne Barth, head of the ICRC delegation in Syria.

Syrian women and children being evacuated by the Red Crescent from Moadamiyet al-Sham.

- With AFP