Attacks continue on East Ghouta
"There was quiet early this morning, I even managed to get some sleep. There were only drones surveying in the sky at first. Then I heard a little bit of shelling, then a lot of shelling. Then the helicopters and planes returned. Today is just any normal day in Ghouta."
Ahmad Khansour, a resident of the town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta
SYRIA: Air strikes and mortar attacks continued on the besieged Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta yesterday, despite a Russian-organised ceasefire.
The truce broke down minutes after its scheduled 9am start, with government troops shelling the rebel pocket before opposition fighters reportedly returned fire. The violence prevented the delivery of aid and left the humanitarian corridor impassable.
‘‘We have reports there is continuous fighting in Eastern Ghouta,’’ said Jens Laerke, UN humanitarian spokesman. ‘‘Clearly the situation on the ground is not such that convoys can go in or medical evacuations can go out.’’
The United Nations Security Council last week unanimously passed a resolution demanding a 30-day cessation of hostilities but did not outline a start date. Russia, which backs the Syrian government, then unilaterally proposed a less ambitious plan for a five-hour daily ‘‘humanitarian pause’’ to allow in aid and open up corridors for civilians to evacuate.
There is currently no mechanism to supervise the Russian truce. Its failure highlights Moscow’s limited influence over its client state Syria and its inability to hold it to account for violations. ‘‘There was quiet early this morning, I even managed to get some sleep,’’ Ahmad Khansour, a resident of the town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta, told The Daily Telegraph. ‘‘There were only drones surveying in the sky at first. Then I heard a little bit of shelling, then a lot of shelling. Then the helicopters and planes returned. Today is just any normal day in Ghouta.’’
The jets were understood to be Syrian, rather than Russian.
The Syrian government said it had opened up a humanitarian corridor near Douma. State TV showed buses waiting at a parking area but there were no signs of anyone coming out. Syria and the Russian government blamed rebel fire for the lack of evacuations, though Jaish alIslam, the main opposition group controlling the enclave, denied the claim.
Residents told The Telegraph they would not use the corridor, either out of fear they would be killed or detained by the regime, or because they did not want to abandon the resistance.
Boris Johnson, the British Foreign Secretary, echoed France’s warning that it would be prepared to strike Syria if there was ‘‘incontrovertible’’ evidence it had used chemical weapons on civilians.
On Sunday, a child died and 13 others showed symptoms consistent with a chlorine attack after a regime air raid struck the town of Al-Shifuniyah. It was at least the seventh suspected chemical attack this year. -