Douma (Syria) (AFP) – New air strikes on the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Saturday took the civilian death toll from seven days of devastating bombardment to more than 500 as the United Nations again struggled to hold a vote on a ceasefire.
A total of 127 children figure among the 513 dead in the bombing campaign that the regime launched last Sunday on the enclave just outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitor of the war said at least 35 civilians were killed in Saturday’s strikes, including eight children. A night of heavy bombardment sparked fires in residential districts, it said.
The Observatory has said the air strikes are being carried out by Syrian and Russian forces. Moscow, which intervened militarily in support of its Damascus ally in 2015, has denied any direct involvement in the Eastern Ghouta bombardment.
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Russia’s recent actions in Syria were a “disgrace”.
The UN Security Council had been due to hold a vote on Friday on a resolution calling for a month-long ceasefire to allow aid deliveries and the evacuation of seriously wounded civilians.
On Saturday, the meeting failed to start as scheduled at 1700 GMT as negotiations continued in an effort to avert a Russian veto, diplomats in New York said.
“Today we are going to see if Russia has a conscience,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters as she went into the council chamber.
– Rebel fire on Damascus –
Control of Eastern Ghouta is shared between two main Islamist factions, while Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate is also present, and Russia insists there can be no ceasefire with the jihadists or their allies.
Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of rebel fighters and their families like the one that saw the government retake full control of second city Aleppo in December 2016.
But all three rebel groups have refused.
World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta, which UN chief Antonio Guterres called “hell on earth”, but have so far been powerless to halt the bloodshed.
The enclave is completely surrounded by government-controlled territory and its 400,000 residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.
In one of the many unfolding dramas at a Douma field hospital, a young woman amputated from the knee breastfed a 40-day-old infant who had lost his entire family in the bombings.
“She doesn’t know yet that her own daughter has been killed,” a nurse said.
Food supplies have been running dry, with bread no longer available on local markets.
“I haven’t eaten since the day before yesterday,” said a mother in a shelter with her two children in Douma, Eastern Ghouta’s main town. “They haven’t stopped crying for three days.”
The cornered rebels in Eastern Ghouta have been firing back into Damascus, where six civilians were wounded on Saturday, state media said.
Around 20 people have been killed in eastern districts of the capital since Sunday, according to state media, and many residents have sought temporary accommodation elsewhere for fear of a further intensification of the fighting.
– ‘Unbelievable’ –
At the United Nations, US ambassador Haley expressed dismay as negotiations dragged on to secure Russian approval for a ceasefire resolution.
“Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria,” she posted on Twitter.
Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions throughout the Syrian conflict to block action that targeted its ally. In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday to ask him to back the ceasefire.
Negotiations have stumbled over a key provision of the draft resolution that specifies when the ceasefire will begin.
Following hours of tough negotiations, an amended draft was circulated that demands a 30-day ceasefire “without delay,” while stopping short of specifying the timing.
A previous draft had said the ceasefire would go into force 72 hours after the adoption, but that was dropped from the text in a bid to reach compromise with Russia.
In another concession to Russia, the draft also specifies that the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with “individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated” with the blacklisted terror groups.
The text would demand the immediate lifting of all sieges in Syria, including that on Eastern Ghouta, and order all sides to “cease depriving civilians of food and medicine indispensable to their survival”.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.