Ghouta assault: 1,100 civilians killed

Syrian army and rebel groups engaged in fierce battles on Sunday on a critical front in eastern Ghouta where government advances have in effect splintered the insurgent enclave into three, a war monitor said.

More than 1,100 civilians have been killed in the onslaught on the biggest rebel stronghold near Damascus since it began three weeks ago with a withering bombardment, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It said there was intense fighting on several fronts accompanied by a government artillery barrage, continuous air raids and attacks by helicopters.

State television on Saturday broadcast from the town of Mesraba after the army captured it, driving a wedge deep inside the insurgent territory that left the major towns of Douma and Harasta all but cut off.

But rebel groups in eastern Ghouta vow they will fight on. A statement issued by Free Syrian Army factions there late on Saturday said they had taken a decision not to accept a surrender and negotiated withdrawal.

The Observatory said army fire on the roads linking the three places in eastern Ghouta meant the enclave had been split.

Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam, the two largest rebel groups in eastern Ghouta, have vowed to resist the army’s offensive, but they have lost more than half the enclave’s area in two weeks of ground fighting.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his ally Russia see the rebels as terrorist groups, and say their offensive is needed to end the rebels’ rule over eastern Ghouta’s large population.

But the violence of their assault has prompted condemnation from Western countries and repeated calls by United Nations aid agencies for a humanitarian ceasefire. Activists and fighters in eastern Ghouta in recent days have said the bombardment has included incendiary material that causes fires and burn injuries. Local doctors have also reported several incidents of bomb attacks followed by the smell of chlorine and choking symptoms.

BEIRUT:The