War in Syria rages on
Death toll tops 220 in four-day assault on the outskirts of Damascus.
ERBIN (Syria):
Syrian regime jets have pounded Eastern Ghouta, sending the death toll from a fourday assault on the rebel enclave on the outskirts of Damascus soaring past 220.
Violence also flared in eastern Syria on Thursday, where the US-led coalition said it had killed at least 100 pro-regime fighters to fend off an attack on its Kurdish allies.
The clash marked a fresh escalation between Washington, which has threatened the regime over its alleged use of chemical weapons, and Damascus, which labelled the latest incident in eastern Syria a “war crime”.
Moscow also slammed the US-led strikes, with Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia saying he had lodged a protest about the assault during a closed-door Security Council meeting.
“To confront those who really fight international terrorism on the ground in Syria is criminal,” he said.
The UN Security Council on Thursday failed to back a UN appeal for a month-long humanitarian ceasefire in Syria.
In Eastern Ghouta, which lies east of the capital and has been besieged since 2013, residents had no time to mourn their dead or treat their wounded from the previous day’s bombardment.
“These are the worst four days that Eastern Ghouta has ever gone through,” said Hamza, an overwhelmed doctor at the Erbin clinic who was treating wounded patients.
“From 2011 until now, there has
never been the level of bombardment we’ve seen in the last 96 hours.”
The death toll mounted steadily throughout Thursday, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights giving 75 civilians dead by the evening.
Three died of wounds suffered on Wednesday.
That brought to 228 the number
of civilians killed since the regime launched a campaign Monday of heavy air raids on the area, which has an estimated 400,000 residents.
Among them were at least 58 children, the Observatory said.
“Children and teachers are terrified that at any moment they could be hit. The siege means there is nowhere for them to escape,” said Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s
Syria response director.
“There must be an immediate halt to the fighting and an end to the siege.”
Moayad al-Hafi, a rescue worker, said his team was targeted as they retrieved bodies near Erbin.
“As we were pulling out the children and the dead from under the rubble, they targeted us with five rockets – directly targeting us,” said Hafi, 24.
At least two civilians were killed in retaliatory rebel mortar fire on government-controlled areas of Damascus, according to state news agency Sana.
Correspondents said mortars were raining down on Bab Touma on Thursday night.
Eastern Ghouta was one of several so-called de-escalation zones agreed last year by three of the main outside players in the conflict – Turkey, Iran and Russia.
Ankara announced on Thursday it would host a new three-way summit to revive efforts to end the war, which has killed at least 340,000 people and displaced millions since 2011.
Recent attempts to bring the conflict’s protagonists and brokers to the table have floundered, but the UN made a fresh call this week for conflicting sides to halt fighting.
The United States backed the plea but Russia – a longtime ally of Syria’s government – shrugged it off.
“That is not realistic,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters at the UN.
A US military official said the US-led coalition that still assists Kurdish-led forces in the hunt for surviving IS members in eastern Syria killed at least 100 pro-regime fighters overnight.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said that the coalition acted in self-defence after pro-government forces moved on an area under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.