Syrian truce fails; artillery strikes Douma

BEIRUT — Syrian troops began a ground offensive under the cover of airstrikes on rebel-held areas outside the capital Damascus on Friday after a 10-day truce collapsed. The new wave of violence left at least 36 people dead, including women and children, according to state media and opposition activists.

By sunset Friday, artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers and warplanes intensely pounded the city of Douma.

Douma is the largest city in eastern Ghouta. The city is a stronghold of the Saudi-backed Army of Islam.

Violence resumed in and around Douma on Friday afternoon after the Army of Islam placed new conditions on an evacuation deal that saw hundreds of fighters and civilians leave earlier this week.

Nearly 50 airstrikes on Douma as of Friday afternoon killed at least 32 people, including children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Douma-based activist Haitham Bakkar said at least 35 people were killed.

“We are being wiped out right now,” Bakkar said via text message from Douma.

Syrian state TV said airstrikes hit Douma after members of the Army of Islam shelled government-held areas, killing and wounding a number of people.

State news agency SANA reported the shelling on government-held Damascus killed four and wounded 22.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the renewed fighting in Douma “is of great concern to us.”

“There are still a number of people who are besieged and trapped in the area,” he told reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York, “We remind all parties that it is a violation of international law to target civilian infrastructure, to target civilians.”

The violence comes after nearly two weeks of calm in the last rebel-held town in the area after the Russians agreed with the Army of Islam to evacuate the area.