Syrian forces advance in battered Ghouta

DOUMA, Syria: Government forces intensified fighting on Saturday inside Syria’s Eastern Ghouta, as tens of thousands of civilians in the besieged rebel enclave east of Damascus awaited urgently needed aid.

On another front in Syria’s sevenyear civil war, Turkish air strikes killed 36 pro-government fighters in a Kurdish enclave near the Turkish border.

Syria’s war has killed more than 340,000 people and spiralled into a complex conflict involving world powers since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Russia-backed Syrian forces have since February 18 killed more than 640 civilians — including over 150 children — in bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, one of the armed opposition’s last strongholds in the country.

Following a deadly wave of air strikes and shelling, fighting on the ground has intensified in recent days, with loyalists retaking several areas inside the agricultural region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syrian forces have advanced steadily since Thursday, the Britainbased monitor said, recapturing two areas in the east and southeast of the enclave on Saturday alone.

“Syrian forces and their allies have intensified their attacks on rebel positions in the past 48 hours,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.