Assault of eastern Ghoutt

Iran has warned that pro-Damascus forces will press ahead with attacks on an insurgent enclave near the Syrian capital, as ground fighting rages on there in defiance of a United Nations resolution demanding a 30-day truce across the country.

Turkey, too, said its military operations in another theatre of war in the north of Syria would not be affected by the unanimous Security Council vote demanding the truce to allow for aid access and medical evacuations.

Anti-government rebels said they clashed with pro-government forces near Damascus yesterday, as rescuers and residents said warplanes struck some towns in eastern Ghouta, an area of suburbs on the outskirts of Damascus and towns outside of it.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes and artillery killed nine people and injured 31 in the eastern suburbs. The British-based monitoring group said yesterday’s bombing was less intense than attacks over the past week.

Meanwhile, health authorities in eastern Ghouta said yesterday that several people suffered symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine gas in the area.

Victims, ambulance drivers and others smelt chlorine after “an enormous explosion” in the eastern Ghouta in the area of al-Shayfouniya, said a statement issued by the local branch of the opposition Syrian Interim Government’s Ministry of Health.

“At least 18 victims were treated with oxygen nebulising sessions,” the statement said.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military.

The latest escalation by Damascus and its allies has killed more than 500 people in the enclave over the last week, the Observatory says. The dead included more than 120 children.

Signalling the war remained a top focus of world leaders, the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin and French and German counterparts Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel spoke by phone and discussed the ceasefire’s implementation.

Iranian General Mohammad Baqeri, whose Government backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said Tehran and Damascus would respect the UN resolution.

But the Iranian military chief of staff also said the truce did not cover parts of the Damascus suburbs “held by the terrorists”, the Tasnim news agency said.

In Ankara, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said the UN resolution would not affect Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish fighters in Syria’s Kurdish-held Afrin region. An informal name for the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, that form around the Barada River, and towns in its eastern reaches, including Douma, Kfar Batna and Saqba. It is historically an agricultural area. The residents of eastern Ghouta were among the first to rise up against Bashar al-Assad's rule in 2011. The area was taken over by rebels a year later as the unrest turned into an armed insurgency, then full-blown civil war. Thousands of battle-hardened militants are entrenched in eastern Ghouta, including the powerful Army of Islam grou u and tive A Fayl la Haya a rebe with pres The enci ir spor r since e rebe e endu u sarin n that peop p heav v since e year r reac c ing le e

Turkey launched an assault last month on Afrin, seeking to drive out the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia which it deems a menace along its border.

Several ceasefires have unravelled quickly during the seven-year war in Syria, where Assad’s military has gained the upper hand with the help of Iran and Russia.

The UN resolution on Sunday followed seven straight days of bombing by pro-government forces on eastern Ghouta, in one of the bloodiest