MORE TROOPS SENT TO GHOUTA
Govt orchestrating apocalypse in Syria, says UN rights chief
SYRIA’S regime sent reinforcements to Eastern Ghouta yesterday, tightening the noose around the shrinking rebel enclave. The blistering onslaught has prompted outrage against the regime, with the UN human rights chief saying the government was orchestrating an “apocalypse” in Syria.
The Russia-backed Syrian army and allied militia launched an offensive on Feb 18 to retake the last opposition bastion near Damascus.
They have since taken more than 40 per cent of the enclave, waging a devastating bombing campaign that has killed more than 800 civilians.
Heavy airstrikes battered key towns in the zone yesterday, as the government dispatched hundreds of pro-government militiamen to the front.
“At least 700 Afghan, Palestinian and Syrian loyalist militiamen came from Aleppo and were sent to Ghouta,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based war monitor said the reinforcements were deployed to two main battlefronts on the western side of the enclave, including Harasta.
Three civilians, including a child, were killed in heavy airstrikes on Jisreen yesterday, the Observatory said.
That brought the toll in more than two weeks of bombing to 810 civilians, including 179 children.
The bombardment has continued despite a one-month ceasefire demanded by the UN Security Council over a week ago.
UN Human Rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said the Syrian regime and its foreign allies were planning their next “apocalypse”.
“This month, it is Eastern Ghouta, which is, in the words of the secretary general, hell on earth. Next month or the month after, it will be somewhere else where people face an apocalypse — an apocalypse intended, planned and executed by individuals within the government, apparently with the full backing of some of their foreign supporters.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged warring sides to allow aid trucks to return for a planned second delivery to the enclave’s main town of Douma today.