Hundreds of children were among the injured and dead in the ongoing air strikes on the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta in Syria where the civilian death toll from seven days of bombing rose to more than 500.
With support from Russia, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on the ceasefire to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries and medical evacuations, but the measure did not specify when the truce would go into force beyond saying it should be “without delay.”
After the UN council vote on Saturday, Syrian warplanes backed by Russian air power launched new raids on a town in Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
At least 127 children are among the 519 dead in the bombing campaign that the regime launched last Sunday on the rebel enclave, just outside Damascus, the British-based monitor said.
At least 41 civilians were killed in Saturday’s (February 24) strikes, including eight children.
More than 2,000 people have been wounded.
The escalation of the bombardment of the besieged area happened since February 18.
More than 340,000 people have been killed and millions driven from the homes in the war, which next month enters its eighth year with no diplomatic solution in sight.
(with Agence France Presse report)