Convoy delivers badly needed aid to Syria, but shelling stalls visit

International agencies’ relief efforts in suburb of Damascus thwarted

GENEVA — Trucks laden with international aid edged into a besieged Damascus suburb Monday, delivering the first relief its shellshocked residents had seen in over three months. But the convoy had to cut short its visit amid continuing fighting and left before some trucks could unload.

By the time the convoy of 46 trucks sent by the United Nations, the International Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent reached the town of Douma around midday, government officials had removed many of the medical supplies.

Officials had expected that the trucks would stay overnight to complete the handover of aid to local residents. But nine hours after it arrived, as airstrikes and shelling pounded Douma and other parts of eastern Ghouta, the convoy pulled out — some trucks laden with supplies.

“We delivered as much as we could amidst shelling,” Sajjad Malik, U.N. refugee agency representative in Damascus, said on Twitter. “Civilians are caught in a tragic situation.”

The convoy’s entry into eastern Ghouta came as the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva concluded an urgent debate on the crisis by passing a resolution that condemned the Syrian government’s ferocious, 2-week-old bombardment of that rebel-held enclave and called for an immediate end to hostilities.

That diplomatic initiative produced no immediate change on the ground.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, described Monday as one of the bloodiest days in the offensive, which started Feb. 18. It said airstrikes and shelling had caused at least 80 casualties, pushing the death toll over the past two weeks to 745, including 172 children.

The casualties Monday reportedly included 12 victims of an attack with chlorine gas on the Hamourieh area of eastern Ghouta. Syrian state television dismissed the claims as a “chlorine play” by terrorist groups trying to provide Western countries a pretext to attack Syria.

Syrian state media said seven people were injured Monday morning in a mortar attack on a military hospital in Damascus by fighters holed up in eastern Ghouta who belong to the Nusra Front, a group affiliated with al-Qaida, and their allies.

The Human Rights Council condemned abuses by all parties.