The Borneo Post (Sabah)

Regime continues to pound Eastern Ghouta

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DOUMA, Syria: The Syrian army continued its offensive against rebel-held Eastern Ghouta yesterday, a day after an aid convoy delivered food to the hunger-stricken residents of the enclave despite heavy bombardmen­t.

Nearly 950 civilians have been killed since Russia-backed government forces launched a blistering assault on the last opposition bastion near Damascus on Feb 18.

Eastern Ghouta’s 400,000 inhabitant­s have lived under government siege since 2013 and the enclave – more than half of which has over the past three weeks been retaken by regime forces – is home to a myriad of armed groups.

Apart from Islamist groups such as Jaish al-Islam, jihadists from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who are mostly linked to al-Qaeda, are also deployed there.

Syrian state television aired footage of a single bus carrying 13 “fighters” and family members out of the enclave through AlWafideen checkpoint, without giving their affiliatio­n.

Some appeared to be young, while others wore hoodies to cover their heads and faces.

The limited operation came as the powerful Jaish al-Islam said HTS fighters would be evacuated to the northern province of Idlib, in an arrangemen­t struck following consultati­ons with the United Nations and other internatio­nal players.

“It has been agreed that the first group of HTS members be released from the prisons of Jaish al-Islam ... (and) moved to Idlib at their request,” Jaish al-Islam said.

HTS is the main force in Idlib, in Syria’s northwest and the last province outside regime control.

Civilians continued to bear the brunt of the violence on Friday with at least six killed in air strikes on the area of Jisreen, the Syrian Observator­y for Human Rights war monitor said.

Thirteen trucks loaded with 2,400 food parcels, meanwhile, crossed into Eastern Ghouta, the Internatio­nal Committee of the Red Cross said, entering what UN chief Antonio Guterres has called “hell on earth”.

But “shelling” near the enclave’s main town of Douma threatened “to put at risk” the joint ICRC, Syrian Arab Red Crescent and United Nations convoy, said the UN humanitari­an coordinato­r in Syria, Ali al-Zaatari.

The aid was delivered as helicopter­s hovered overhead and warplanes targeted areas outside Douma, a correspond­ent said.

The World Health Organisati­on said it has verified 67 hits on medical facilities in Syria through January and February, nearly half of them in Eastern Ghouta.

The facilities hit included 20 hospitals, 16 health facilities, two ambulance stations and one medical supply warehouse.

Doctors and nurses in the enclave have run out of several life-saving items, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which reported a “terrible medical catastroph­e.”

“Medical material is extremely limited, medical infrastruc­ture has been hit and medical staff are exhausted,” it said, adding that hundreds of people have been wounded and need urgent assistance.

In the face of the regime’s Russian-backed onslaught, Ghouta’s main rebel groups had so far rejected Moscow-brokered offers to evacuate civilians or any of their own fighters.

But on Feb 27, they said in a letter to the United Nations they would be willing to expel jihadist fighters from the enclave as soon as a UN ceasefire took effect.

That offer came on the same day as a daily humanitari­an “pause” called by Moscow began, a measure which fell short of a 30-day ceasefire called by the UN Security Council late last month.

Observator­y head Rami Abdel Rahman said talks were underway between regime representa­tives and local figures to organise the evacuation of civilians or fighters from parts of the enclave.

SANA earlier said dozens of civilians were expected to leave on Friday through the Wafideen checkpoint, an agreed exit point.

An AFP correspond­ent at the checkpoint said green and white trucks and ambulances were parked waiting to pick up passengers.

In the town of Hammuriyeh, dozens of people took part in a protest calling for an end to the bloodshed, the Britain-based Observator­y said.

“Enough destructio­n and death! We want to save our children and all those who have not died,” said Abu Riyadh, a 47-year-old man in the town.

A negotiator from the Hammuriyeh said a “civilian delegation” wanted to hold talks with the regime to end the fighting in the area.

A tribal leader said more than 300 civilians from the areas of Kafr Batna, Saqba and Hammuriyeh wanted to leave. He told journalist­s there had also been discussion­s for “500 fighters to hand over their weapons to the army”.

Syria’s war, which enters its eight year next week, has killed more that 340,000 people since it erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

UN High Commission­er for Refugees Filippo Grandi on Friday called the conflict a “colossal human tragedy”.

Medical material is extremely limited, medical infrastruc­ture has been hit and medical staff are exhausted. Hundreds of people have been wounded and need urgent assistance. — MSF reports

 ?? — AFP photo ?? Humanitari­an aid being distribute­d in the Syrian town of Douma in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta provided by the Syrian Red Crescent accompanie­d by UN and ICRC.
— AFP photo Humanitari­an aid being distribute­d in the Syrian town of Douma in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta provided by the Syrian Red Crescent accompanie­d by UN and ICRC.
 ?? — Reuters photo ?? People are seen around Red Crescent aid trucks in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria.
— Reuters photo People are seen around Red Crescent aid trucks in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria.

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