ASSAD BACK IN CONTROL OF MORE THAN HALF OF GHOUTA
Incessant air strikes have driven civilian casualties to more than 1,000
Forces loyal to the Syrian regime have taken over more than half of rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, splitting the remainder into three pockets and segregating Douma from the rest of the enclave.
The regime’s advances have dealt another setback to rebel fighters and threaten to worsen an already dire humanitarian situation.
More than 1,000 civilians have been killed in the Syrian regime’s 20-day Russian-backed air campaign and ground offensive to capture the last rebel bastion on the capital’s doorstep.
On Saturday, the army and allied militias isolated Ghouta’s main town of Douma and cut off a road linking it to the town of Harasta further west, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Observatory said the death toll had reached 1,031 civilians, including 219 children.
More than 4,350 have been injured.
Dozens of decomposing bodies are still trapped under pulverised residential blocks in the towns of Hammuriyeh, Saqba, and Misraba.
On Saturday, at least 20 civilians, including four children, were killed in Douma.
Seventeen were killed in other battlefront towns, the monitor group said.
Yesterday, government troops battered the edges of each pocket with air raids, barrel bombs and rockets, said the Observatory.
Residents have been crowding into basements in towns across the enclave to shelter from the indiscriminate bombardment.
The international medical charity Doctors Without Borders said 15 of the 20 hospitals and clinics it supported had been damaged.
Russian military more than 50 civilians were moved to safety from the besieged suburbs of Damascus yesterday.
“Today, 52 civilians, including
26 children, were brought from Eastern Ghouta,” said Maj Gen Vladimir Zolotukhin.
They were the first recorded civilians to be moved from Eastern Ghouta since government forces outlined a humanitarian corridor for escape more than a week ago.
But there has been no let-up to the shelling or bombardment to allow civilians to move.
Meanwhile, a “distress call” was issued on Saturday by Douma’s opposition-run local council.
“The bomb shelters and basements are full and people are sleeping in the streets and in public gardens,” the council said in a statement addressed to international organisations.
“For three days, it has been hard to bury the dead because of the intense bombing on the cemetery.”
Eastern Ghouta, which is home to about 400,000 people, is the last remaining opposition-controlled zone on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.
Rebels have tried to counter offensive by the forces of President Al Assad, but the government has steamrolled its efforts.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Sunday warned the Syrian government not to use chemical weapons in its civil war.
Mr Mattis said that he was disturbed by reports of civilian casualties from bombings by regime militias.
Syria’s conflict began with protests against Mr Al Assad but has since developed into
For three days, it has been hard to bury the dead because of the intense bombing on the cemetery DOUMA LOCAL COUNCIL ‘Distress call’ statement
a full-blown war drawing in world powers. Russia has intervened on Mr Al Assad’s behalf while Turkey has backed rebels against his regime.
On Saturday, Turkey-backed rebels advanced against Kurdish militia in north-west Syria, coming to within 2 kilometres of the flashpoint town of Afrin, the Observatory said.