UN vote to end Ghouta carnage Death toll reaches 500 in Syrian enclave described as ‘hell on earth’

NEW YORK: The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Saturday demanding a 30-day truce in Syria to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations with the support of Syrian ally Russia after a flurry of last-minute negotiations.

New airstrikes on the opposition enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Saturday took the civilian death toll from seven days of devastating bombardment to more than 500.

A total of 127 children figure among the 513 dead in the bombing campaign that the regime launched last Sunday on the enclave just outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based monitor of the war said at least 35 civilians were killed in Saturday’s strikes, including eight children. A night of heavy bombardment sparked fires in residential districts, it said.

The observatory has said the airstrikes are being carried out by Syrian and Russian forces. Moscow, which intervened militarily in support of its Damascus ally in 2015, has denied any direct involvement in the Eastern Ghouta bombardment.

World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta, which UN chief Antonio Guterres called “hell on earth,” but have so far been powerless to halt the bloodshed.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said Russia’s recent actions in Syria were a “disgrace.”

“Today we are going to see if Russia has a conscience,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley said earlier as she went into the council chamber.

Control of Eastern Ghouta is shared between two main radical factions, while Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate is also present, and Russia insists there can be no ceasefire with the terrorists or their allies.

Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of fighters and their families like the one that saw the regime retake full control of second city Aleppo in December 2016. But all three opposition groups have refused.