Syria’s Assad: Operations in Eastern Ghouta will continue

SYRIA - In defiance of the international community, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared that military operations in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta would continue as the bombardment of the area moves into its third week. “The operation in Ghouta is a continuation of combating terrorism in different places,” Assad said in comments to local journalists that were broadcast on Syrian state television Sunday.

“There is no contradiction between the truce and combat operations,” the Syrian President said, referring to a fivehour daily ceasefire ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin last Monday that was meant to open a humanitarian corridor for traumatized civilians to leave.

“The progress achieved yesterday and the day before in Ghouta by the Syrian Arab Army was made during this truce,” Assad said. In major turning point for the offensive, the Syrian regime had taken control of several villages in Eastern Ghouta, according to Syrian state-run news agency SANA.

SANA reported that villages once controlled by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra were now under the regime’s authority. It also said that the rebel group had fired over 300 mortar shells and rockets on neighboring Damascus, killing and injuring scores of civilians.

It is the first time the Syrian regime has announced territorial control of parts of Eastern Ghouta since launching the offensive on the rebel-held enclave on February 18.

Assad said that operations would continue, while “opening the way for civilians to leave.”

Thousands of residents have fled their homes in Eastern Ghouta and headed westward where the fighting is less severe, civilians inside the suburb told CNN on Sunday.

“The situation on the ground is catastrophic,” surgeon Hamza Hassan, based in Irbin in Eastern Ghouta, told CNN via WhatsApp. “There is massive internal displacement of 30,000 people from (the areas of) Beit Sawa, Otaya, the Douma villages,” he said. A 45-truck convoy with enough supplies for 90,000 people in 10 locations is on standby to deliver aid to parts of the war-torn enclave. It hasn’t been able to enter the area to date but in a statement Sunday the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said .

“We hope that the convoy may proceed as planned and will be followed by other convoys,” said Ali Al-Za’tari, the UN’s Syria Humanitarian Coordinator. “Our teams on the ground are ready to do all that is needed to make this happen.” (CNN)