FINAL BATTLE FOR REBEL TOWN OF DOUMA
▶ Assad regime ‘tightens noose’ around last holdout area in eastern Ghouta as 48 are killed in air strikes
Air strikes pounded the rebel-held Syrian town of Douma yesterday, in 24 hours of carnage that killed at least 48 civilians.
The bombing came after a 10day truce between President Bashar Al Assad’s regime and the rebels collapsed.
The offensive to reclaim Douma, the last pocket of resistance in the suburbs surrounding Damascus, also followed talks on Syria between Turkey, Russia and Iran.
The three countries are active in the conflict but on Wednesday they called for a lasting ceasefire. It was not clear if Russia, the regime’s main backer, or the Syrian Air Force had conducted the latest air strikes.
“The bombing has not stopped. We can’t even count all the wounded,” said Mohammed, a young doctor inside Douma. “There are some wounded who we could not operate on in time and they died.”
On Friday, the Syrian army launched an assault on Douma’s outskirts after talks ended over a rebel withdrawal.
Regime forces have captured nearly all of Ghouta with intensive bombing raids that started on February 18, and negotiated withdrawals.
All that remains is the largest town of Douma, home to tens of thousands, which is held by the Jaish Al Islam faction.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes were hitting Douma yesterday as regime artillery hit neighbouring fields.
The Observatory said 40 people were killed on Friday, with eight more dying in the latest violence.
“The regime is trying to tighten the noose around Douma from the west, east and south,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Moscow announced a deal with Jaish Al Islam last Sunday, ushering in three consecutive days of evacuations from Douma that led to nearly 3,000 fighters and civilians taken in buses to Idlib, northern Syria.
But the exit plan stalled after reports that the militants were divided over a withdrawal, and heavy bombing started to hit Douma on Friday afternoon.
The Observatory said there were dozens of air strikes, including some suspected to have been carried out by Russian warplanes.
Regime forces were locked in violent clashes with Jaish Al Islam rebels in agricultural areas to the south-west and east of the town.
A medic inside Douma described chaos at the local hospital as wounded and dead were brought in.
“The hospital is in a state of panic,” he said. “Dentists are carrying out emergency surgeries. Bodies are being brought in pieces and are unrecognisable.”
Mohammed said state television was broadcasting the bombardment live. “It feels like we’re back in the days of the Gaza war,” he said.
State news agency Sana said Syrian air strikes hit the town on Friday in response to deadly rebel mortar fire from Douma.
It said mortar shells hit several suburbs of the capital and killed at least four people and wounded more than a dozen.
But Jaish Al Islam spokesman Hamza Bayraqdar late on Friday
denied that the group had targeted Damascus neighbourhoods.
The air and ground offensive on Eastern Ghouta has killed more than 1,600 civilians and caused an international outcry.
The enclave on the eastern edge of Damascus had escaped government control since 2012 and, although it had shrunk over the years, it still covered sizeable territory two months ago.
The daily air raids kept residents cowering in basements for weeks and a ground assault soon sliced the area into three isolated pockets, each held by different rebel factions.
The first two were evacuated under Russian-brokered deals last month in which more than 46,000 rebels and civilians moved to the north-western province of Idlib, which the regime does not control.
Tens of thousands of people also fled through humanitarian corridors opened by Russia and Syrian troops. Some have already returned to their devastated neighbourhoods while others are staying in crowded shelters.
As talks over the third and final pocket of Douma dragged on, Russia and Syria’s regime threatened Jaish Al Islam with a renewed military assault if it did not agree to withdraw. Those still trapped in Douma had been nervous that any attempt to renege on plans to leave would prompt Russia and regime warplanes to resume deadly strikes.
In Ankara on Wednesday, the Turkish, Russian and Iranian presidents said there was “no alternative to the Syrian National Dialogue Congress”, the Moscow-sponsored peace effort that is widely seen as a rival to the UN’s Geneva process.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani said the Astana initiative “had been the only effective international initiative that had helped reduce violence across Syria and had contributed to peace and stability in Syria”.
The talks came just hours after US President Donald Trump signalled an exit soon from Syria, saying he wanted to “bring our troops back home”.
The hospital is in a state of panic. Dentists are carrying out emergency surgery. Bodies are being brought in pieces
‘MOHAMMED’ Young doctor in Douma