Síria: Já se comem cães e gatos

In recent days, mosques in the suburbs of Damascus have echoed with a new message - a fatwa permitting residents to eat what is normally forbidden. In a video, a group of Muslim clerics said people could eat cats, dogs and donkeys to stave off starvation. Much of the strategically important area around the Syrian capital is under rebel control, triggering daily bombardments from government forces. Deliveries of food and other aid supplies have also been blocked. 'Absurd situation' In a message to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha - normally a time for celebration and feasting - the religious leaders authorised those left in the Ghouta agricultural belt around Damascus to eat animals usually considered unfit for human consumption in Islam. The clerics said it was a cry for help to the whole world, adding that if the situation continued to deteriorate, the living would have to eat the dead. It is not the first such fatwa issued in the Syrian conflict. Similar religious edicts were announced in Homs and Aleppo when the fighting in those cities was at its fiercest. Aid agencies have said that providing food and aid to areas under attack should be as much a priority as the programme to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. The general director of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Christopher Stokes, has described it as an "absurd" situation when chemical weapons inspectors are able to drive freely through areas in desperate need while aid convoys are blocked. Hundreds of people were killed on 21 August when rockets filled with the nerve agent were fired at the suburbs of Zamalka, Ein Tarma and Muadhamiya. The inspectors did not establish who was responsible, but the government and rebels have blamed each other. BBC