Syrian joined twins 'died while awaiting resettlement abroad'

Twins joined a month, who were evacuated from a suburb surrounded by rebels near the Syrian capital Damascus have died, said a medical organization.

Nawras and Moaz were united in the chest, with hearts in the same chest.The government allowed to settle in a children's hospital on August 12 after doctors filed a request.

The boys were waiting for documents that could travel abroad for surgical operation that will save lives, when they died, said the American Medical Society.

"The whole world might not have permission to evacuate them," wrote the manager of charitable support in Turkey, Mohamad Katoub, on Twitter.

Moaz and Nawras weighed less than 12lb (5.4kg) when they were born by caesarean section on 23 July at the Zahra hospital in Douma, a town in the eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus.

Douma has been completely besieged by government forces for two years and the undersupplied hospital was unable to provide the twins with the care they required.

There are conflicting reports about why it took almost three weeks for the boys to be evacuated.

The SAMS and doctors in Douma said the government only gave permission for an SARC ambulance to pass through the frontline because of a social media campaign they mounted, using the Twitter hashtag "#EvacuateTheTwins".

On Wednesday morning, Mr Katoub announced that the boys had died. "The whole world couldn't have the permission to evacuate them," he added.

He was later quoted by the pro-opposition website Enab Baladi as blaming "interference by the ministry of foreign affairs and its stalling of issuing a travel permit to any country to allow them to receive treatment".

The SARC said the twins had received treatment in intensive care while being "registered in the formal civil records and having passports issued for them".

But it added that the Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital in Rome had agreed to admit them and that "all formal leave approvals were signed in order to travel". "However, the bad general health condition [of the boys] was a hindrance."/ShikoNews