Assad bomb blitz blocks aid for 180,000 people
AN aid convoy bringing food and medicine to 180,000 civilians trapped in besieged Eastern Ghouta has been blocked from entering, as bombing raids continue.
Forty trucks on a UN relief mission had to stop outside Ghouta, on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus. It is believed that President Bashar al-assad’s advancing army refused to pause attacks so they could move in. Only one small convoy with supplies for just 7,200 people has been allowed into Ghouta so far this year.
It came as it emerged that 600 people have reportedly been killed in two weeks since Assad’s forces – backed by Russian fighter jets – intensified a military campaign to retake the rebel stronghold.
More than 2,000 people – many of them desperately ill children – have been seriously injured in the area since the escalation in the bombardment.
UN regional humanitarian co-ordinator Panos Moumtzis said: “Instead of a muchneeded reprieve, we continue to see more fighting, more death, and more disturbing reports of hunger and hospitals being bombed. This punishment of civilians is simply unacceptable.”
The Syrian government has now recaptured around 10% of Eastern Ghouta.