Death toll grows amid relentless bombing attacks
BEIRUT — Syrian government warplanes supported by Russia continued their relentless bombardment of the rebelcontrolled eastern suburbs of Damascus for a sixth day Friday, killing 32 people, opposition activists and a war monitor reported. The death toll from the past week climbed to more than 400.
The new wave of bombings came a day after the Syrian army dropped leaflets over rebel-held eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus, calling on residents to leave for their own safety and urging opposition fighters to hand themselves over. The leaflets were dropped by helicopters over the area known as eastern Ghouta, telling residents that they are surrounded on all sides by the Syrian army.
The number of casualties has overwhelmed rescuers and doctors at hospitals, many of which have also been bombed. World leaders a day earlier called for an urgent cease-fire in Syria to allow relief agencies to deliver aid and evacuate the critically sick and wounded from besieged areas to receive medical care.
The U.N. Security Council delayed a vote Friday on a resolution demanding a 30-day humanitarian cease-fire across Syria in hopes of trying to close a gap over when a halt to fighting should take place.
Kuwait’s U.N. Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaiba, the current council president, said Friday evening that “we are so close,” but there are still differences over the timing of a cease-fire. He said the council will meet again on Saturday.
The resolution would allow attacks directed at extremists from the Islamic State and all al Qaeda affiliates, including the Levant Liberation Committee, to continue. The Syrian government and its Russian allies say they are pursuing Islamic extremists and terrorists.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called a 30day cease-fire unrealistic and said it couldn’t be enforced.
But Sweden and Kuwait, which sponsored the resolution, have been pressing for immediate action as deaths mount in a Syrian bombing campaign in the rebel-held suburbs of eastern Ghouta near Damascus. They rejected a key Russian-proposed amendment that would have ruled out an immediate ceasefire.
Whether Russia will veto or abstain in the vote remains to be seen.
“It is about saving lives,” Sweden’s U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog said, “U.N. convoys and evacuation teams are ready to go. It’s time for the council to come together and shoulder its responsibility to urgently avert a situation that is beyond words in its desperation.”
Russia has been a main backer for Syrian President Bashar Assad and has joined the battle on his side since 2015, tipping the balance of power in his favor. Opposition activists say Russian warplanes are taking part in bombarding eastern Ghouta.