 An imam in a rebel-held district of Damascus has issued a fatwa allowing residents to eat cats and dogs, in a desperate bid to ward off starvation after months under siege by the Assad regime. The Syrian regime is preventing the entry of food and relief items. Over the last 10 months Syrian government troops have been steadily reducing the amount of supplies allowed into these areas. The Yarmouk camp has been under siege for three months, and humanitarian conditions have deteriorated drastically.
– The days of dogs and cats living in Damascus or its hard-hit suburbs might be numbered, at least according to local clerics. With reports surfacing of regime loyalists using starvation tactics against rebel-held areas like Muadhamiya, Syrian clerics have issued a fatwa telling the faithful that is OK to eat normally forbidden meats like dogs, cats, and donkeys, the BBC reports. "It is a reflection of the reality we are suffering," one cleric said, according to the Telegraph. One leading imam followed that up with a video on Al Arabiya today begging for international humanitarian intervention. "How does the world sleep with full stomachs while there are hungry people, and not far from the main city?" he asked. "Are you waiting for us to eat the flesh of our martyrs and our dead?"