Tag: Eastern Ghouta

Casualties reported in strike on Syria air base: state media

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — A missile attack on a Syrian military airport left several dead and wounded, state media said Monday after the US warned Damascus and its allies over an earlier suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town. The strike on the Tayfur air base in the central province of Homs, came as international outrage mounts over an attack on Saturday in the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta. “Several missiles hit the Tayfur airport. Our […]

Russia says ‘terrorists nearly wiped out’ of Syria’s Eastern Ghouta

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said Syrian forces had “nearly wiped out the terrorists” in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta. Backed by the Russian military since 2015, the Syrian regime in February launched a massive offensive against rebels in the Damascus suburb, killing more than 1,600 civilians. “As a result of this anti-terrorism operation in Eastern Ghouta, terrorist elements have nearly been wiped out of this suburb of […]

Death and exodus as two Syria assaults escalate

by Maher al-Mounes with Tony Gamal-Gabriel in Beirut © Agence France-Presse ADRA, Syria (AFP) — Air strikes killed dozens of civilians in Eastern Ghouta on Friday and forced thousands more to flee, as Syrian troops pressed their blistering assault on the last rebel stronghold near Damascus. The latest deaths brought the toll for the nearly month-old offensive to 1,350, with world powers still unable to stop one of the devastating conflict’s worst crises. Syria’s war enters […]

Syria regime pummels besieged Eastern Ghouta

by Abdulmonam Eassa Agence France-Presse HAMMURIYEH, Syria – Syrian forces pursued a relentless air and ground offensive against Eastern Ghouta on Thursday, moving closer to retaking the rebel enclave but also depriving desperate civilians of vital aid. More than 900 civilians have been killed in the nearly three-week assault on the last rebel enclave outside the capital, where dozens suffered overnight from a suspected chlorine attack. On another front in Syria’s complex seven-year war, pro-Turkey rebels seized control […]

Strikes hit Syria’s battered Ghouta as death toll hits 800

by Hasan Mohammed Agence France Presse DOUMA, Syria (AFP) — Heavy air strikes and clashes shook the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta ahead of an urgent UN Security Council meeting Wednesday on the escalating violence. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 805 civilians — including at least 178 children — have been killed since Russia-backed regime forces launched an assault on the besieged enclave outside Damascus on February 18. Russia suffered its own […]

Aid convoy quits Syria enclave as regime presses onslaught

by Hasan Mohamed with Rim Haddad in Damascus Agence France-Presse DOUMA, Syria – An international convoy cut short its mission to Syria’s rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Monday after delivering desperately needed aid as the regime pounded the region, killing dozens as it seized more ground. At least 68 civilians were killed Monday, a monitor said, while the United Nations reported dozens of trucks carrying aid had reached the main town of Douma. The government removed medical […]

Aid convoy enters Syria enclave as regime presses offensive

  by Hasan Mohamed with Rim Haddad in Damascus Agence France Presse DOUMA, Syria (AFP) — A UN convoy entered Syria’s Eastern Ghouta on Monday to deliver much-needed aid as regime forces seized more ground in a fierce offensive to retake the battered rebel enclave. The United Nations said 46 trucks had entered Eastern Ghouta and were headed for the main town of Douma, in the first aid delivery since the start of the regime […]

Syria’s Assad says Ghouta campaign must go on

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday his forces must push on with their campaign to retake the besieged enclave of Eastern Ghouta from rebels, despite mounting international calls to end the bloodshed. Assad’s forces have seized over a quarter of the enclave on Damascus’s eastern edges after two weeks of devastating bombardment, according to a war monitor. As the United States, Britain and France stepped up pressure on Damascus and Moscow […]

Fresh violence marks first day of Syria enclave ‘truce’

by Hasan Mohamed © Agence France-Presse DOUMA, Syria (AFP) — A “humanitarian pause” announced by Russia in Syria’s deadly bombardment of Eastern Ghouta failed to end violence Tuesday, with fresh bloodshed and no sign of aid deliveries or residents leaving the besieged enclave. Nine days after Russian-backed regime forces intensified their campaign against the rebel-held enclave, the deal offered some respite to civilians who had been hiding in their basements. But the first day of a five-hour […]

UNICEF issues blank statement slamming ‘war on children in Syria’

AMMAN, Jordan (AFP) — The UN children’s fund on Tuesday expressed “outrage” over the killings of children in Syria by issuing a blank statement, adding in a footnote that “no words will do (them) justice”. The statement came after a ferocious Syrian regime bombing campaign pounded the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Monday, killing 127 civilians, 39 of them children. “No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and […]

77 dead as Syria enclave pounded ahead of expected ground assault

by Abdulmonam Eassa Agence France-Presse HAMMURIYEH, Syria – Heavy Syrian bombardment killed at least 77 civilians in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta on Monday, a war monitor said, as regime forces appeared to prepare for an imminent ground assault. The escalation came as pro-government forces were also expected to enter the northern Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin, to take a stand against a month-old Turkish assault there. Held by rebels since 2012, Eastern Ghouta is the last opposition pocket around […]