GHOUTA STARVES AS ASSAD STORMS IN
400,000 need medicine and food in besieged Syrian rebel enclave
Syrian government troops have recaptured more than a quarter of the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, bringing them close to the main town of Douma, monitors said yesterday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces had advanced to within 3 kilometres of Douma, Agence France-Presse reported.
Operations have so far have mostly taken government troops through farmland.
The government launched a two-week bombing campaign against the Damascus suburbs, which has killed more than 650 civilians and sent hundreds more fleeing to western parts of the enclave.
The UN said yesterday that it planned to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to Eastern Ghouta residents today.
“Forty-six truckloads of health and nutrition supplies, along with food for 27,500 people in need” will enter the enclave, said the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Eastern Ghouta’s 400,000 residents have lived under regime siege since 2013, with severe shortages of food and medicine.
“We hope that the convoy may proceed as planned and will be followed by other convoys,” said Ali Al Zaatari, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Syria who will lead today’s operation.
“Our teams are ready to do all that is needed to make this happen.”
Russia, the main ally of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, last week announced daily fivehour humanitarian pauses in Eastern Ghouta. But although the air campaign has eased, fighting has intensified.
With the support of Russian air strikes, the Syrian military has advanced on several fronts, retaking control of farms and villages, a source with the military said.
The source said government forces had seized districts including Al Nashabiyeh and Otaya, and had “eradicated terrorist groups” on the eastern outskirts of Damascus.
The government refers to all armed opposition groups as “terrorists”.
Meanwhile, the Observatory said Mr Al Assad’s forces had reached the centre of Eastern Ghouta, to the edge of the town of Beit Sawa from which hundreds of civilians fled yesterday.
“Everyone is on the road. There is destruction everywhere,” said Abu Khalil, 35, as he carried a little girl who was wounded on the cheek.
The only UN delivery of aid to Eastern Ghouta so far this year took place on February 14, when a convoy with assistance for 7,200 people reached Al Nashabiyeh.
The UN agency said yesterday that a new delivery of aid would be taken in to Eastern Ghouta by the UN and its partners, after they “received approval to deliver assistance for 70,000 people in need in the besieged enclave”.
“The UN has received assurances that the remaining supplies for all approved people in need will be delivered on 8 March 2018,” it said. “The UN calls on all parties to facilitate unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access to all people in need throughout the country.”
Opposition fighters are on the back foot in Eastern Ghouta but they are not going without a fight and have even retaken parts of the area of Shifoniya, the Observatory said.
Its head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said at least 12 regime fighters had been killed in Shifoniya and in Al Rihan in overnight clashes with the Jaish Al Islam opposition group.
Jaish Al Islam shares control of rebel-held parts of Eastern Ghouta with Faylaq Al Rahman and Ahrar Al Sham.
Hamza Bayraqdar, a spokesman for Jaish Al Islam, said on Twitter that the group’s forces had launched “surprise attacks” against regime positions.
Encircled by government-controlled territory and unable or unwilling to flee, Eastern Ghouta’s residents have in recent weeks suffered one of the most ferocious assaults of the Syrian war.
The Observatory said about 2,000 civilians had fled clashes in eastern areas to reach western parts of the enclave.
Opposition fighters are on the back foot in Eastern Ghouta but they are not going without a fight