Ghouta ceasefire breaks down amid renewed raids

Violence prevents delivery of aid or evacuations, despite five-hour pause brokered by Moscow

AIR strikes and mortar attacks continued on the besieged Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta yesterday, despite a Russian-organised ceasefire.

The truce broke down minutes after its scheduled 9am start, with government troops shelling the rebel pocket before opposition fighters reportedly returned fire. The violence prevented the delivery of aid and left the humanitarian corridor impassable.

“We have reports there is continuous fighting in Eastern Ghouta,” said Jens Laerke, a United Nations aid spokesman. “Clearly the situation on the ground is not such that convoys can go in or medical evacuations can go out.”

The UN Security Council passed a unanimous resolution last week demanding a 30-day cessation of hostilities in the Damascus suburb, but did not outline a start date. Russia, which backs President Bashar al-assad’s regime, then unilaterally proposed a less ambitious five-hour daily “humanitarian pause” to allow in aid and open up corridors for civilians to get out.

There is currently no mechanism to supervise the Russian truce, and its failure highlights Moscow’s limited influence over Assad’s forces and an inability to hold them to account.

“There was quiet early this morning, I even managed to get some sleep,” Ahmad Khansour, a resident of the town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta, told The Daily Telegraph. “There were only drones surveying in the sky at first.

“Then I heard a little bit of shelling, then a lot of shelling. Then the helicopters and planes returned. Today is just any normal day in Ghouta.”

The jets were understood to be Syrian, rather than Russian.

The Syrian government said it had opened up a humanitarian corridor near Douma. State television showed buses at a parking area, but there were no signs of anyone coming out.

Syria and the Russian government blamed rebel fire for the lack of evacuations, though Jaish al-islam, the main opposition group controlling the enclave, denied the claim.

Residents told The Telegraph they would not use the corridor, either out of fear they would be killed or detained by the regime, or because they did not want to abandon the resistance.

Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, yesterday warned that there is “no military solution” that the West could set out for Syria. However, he echoed France’s warning that it would be prepared to strike Syria if there was “incontrovertible” evidence that it had used chemical weapons on civilians.

On Sunday, a child died and 13 others showed symptoms consistent with a chlorine attack after a regime air raid struck the town of Al-shifuniyah.

It was at least the seventh suspected chemical attack this year.