Syria bombs split Ghouta enclave
NEW air strikes and barrel bombs pounded Syria’s Eastern Ghouta yesterday as government forces pressed a three-week advance that splintered the rebel enclave and trapped dozens under collapsed buildings.
Defying global calls for a ceasefire, Syria’s government has pursued a ferocious Russian-backed air campaign and ground offensive to capture the region, the last rebel bastion on the capital’s doorstep.
In three weeks of fighting, it has overrun more than half the area and split the remainder into three pockets, isolating the urban hub of Douma from the rest of the enclave.
Yesterday, government troops battered the edges of each pocket with air raids, barrel bombs, and rockets, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The clashes are focused now around the town of Medeira, where rebels are putting up fierce resistance,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Bombing runs hit several other towns including Arbin, where at least three civilians were killed.
The deaths bring the total toll from the offensive to at least 1 102 civilians, according to the monitor.
They include dozens of decomposing bodies still trapped under pulverised residential blocks in the towns of Hammuriyeh, Saqba, and Misraba.
In the main town of Douma, bodies piled up in the morgue as bombardment prevented families from reaching the cemetery.
On Saturday, Syrian troops and allied militia cut off the main road leading out of Douma in a major blow to beleaguered rebels. Government forces also captured the town of Misraba.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said it would be very unwise for the Syrian regime to use gas as a weapon against the people of Eastern Ghouta and elsewhere, referencing President Donald Trump’s strike on a Syrian airbase after an alleged chemical attack last year.
The warning came amid reports Syrian government forces have used chlorine gas in the rebel-held area near Damascus.
“We have made it very clear that it would be very unwise to use gas against people, civilians on any battlefield,” Mattis said on a trip to Oman.