Violence halts aid delivery in Syria

Assad forces kept up fatal shelling

Associated Press

BEIRUT — The first aid delivery in weeks to reach the besieged eastern suburbs of Damascus was cut short after Syrian government forces began shelling the area while aid workers were still inside, a local council said Tuesday, amid a renewed escalation in the government’s deadly aerial and ground campaign.

Meanwhile, at the same time that Russia was aiding the Assad government in its relentless campaign to reclaim the final rebel pocket on the outskirts of the capital, United Nations investigators linked Moscow’s forces to a possible war crime in Syria for the first time, reporting on Tuesday that a Russian plane was responsible for airstrikes on a market last year that killed scores of civilians.

And in its worst Syria campaign loss, Russia’s Defense Ministry said 32 people were killed when a military transport plane crashed as it prepared to land at an air base in Syria.

Near Damascus, aid trucks had to leave before they could finish unloading supplies on Monday, as the eastern Ghouta suburbs suffered their worst day of violence since the U.N. Security Council demanded a 30-day cease-fire for Syria.

The Syrian American Medical Society charity, which supports hospitals in eastern Ghouta, said 79 people were killed in shelling and airstrikes, as the government, supported by Russia’s military, pushed its assault on the rebel-held suburbs, where the U.N. estimates close to 400,000 people are trapped under unmanageable levels of violence.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said 80 civilians were killed on Monday, marking one of the deadliest spells since the military operation began.

At the same time, rebel groups have sent many mortar shells into densely populated Damascus districts.

The Security Council resolution, which passed unanimously on Feb. 25, has gone unheeded. Monday’s aid shipment was the first to enter eastern Ghouta amid weeks of a crippling siege and a government assault that has killed close to 800 civilians since Feb. 18. Aid agencies, however, said Syrian authorities removed basic health supplies, including trauma, surgical kits and insulin, from the convoys before they set off.

The U.N. said airstrikes and shelling in eastern Ghouta and the shelling of Damascus continued for hours while the convoy was unloading supplies.

Abdulmonam Essa/AFP/Getty Images Volunteers from the Syrian Civil Defense help a man Tuesday during Syrian government shelling on rebel-held areas of Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus.