A surge in attacks by the Syrian government and its allies has killed 71 people in the rebel pocket of eastern Ghouta in the past 24 hours, a war monitoring group said yesterday.
Air strikes, rocket fire and shelling on the besieged suburbs of Damascus also wounded 325 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
There was no comment from the Syrian military.
The Damascus government says it only targets militants.
Factions in Ghouta fired mortars at districts of Damascus, killing a child and wounding eight others, Syrian state media said.
Troops and allied forces struck militant targets there in response, state news agency SANA said.
The United Nations says nearly 400,000 people live in eastern Ghouta, a pocket of satellite towns and farms under government siege since 2013.
The British-based Observatory said the latest escalation started on Sunday in Ghouta, the only major insurgent enclave around the capital, and the dead included 14 children.
The civil defence there said warplanes and artillery pounded Saqba, Jisreen, and other towns.
The rescue service, which operates in rebel territory, said strikes killed 20 people and wounded dozens in the town of Hammouriyeh alone yesterday.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military gained momentum in the war after Russian war planes entered on his side in 2015, pushing rebels from major cities, and retaking much of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State.
Wael Olwan, spokesman for the Failaq al-Rahman rebel group in eastern Ghouta, said there was heavy bombing throughout the day.
“There are no ground invasions in the field and clashes, but there is very big shelling and preparatory fire,” he said.
The United Nations said last week Syria was seeing some of the worst fighting of the war, which is entering its eighth year.
The multi-sided conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.
Malnutrition has increased sharply in eastern Ghouta, particularly among children, with barely any food aid available, the UN office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) says.
Rising violence reportedly pushed some 15,000 civilians to flee their homes last month, taking refuge in makeshift shelters or basements, OCHA said.
Eastern Ghouta falls under ceasefire plans for rebel territory that Russia has brokered with the help of Turkey and Iran.
Residents and aid workers say the “de-escalation” deals have brought no relief.
Food, fuel, and medicine have dwindled.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday Moscow and its allies could “deploy our experience of freeing Aleppo...in the eastern Ghouta situation”. With support from Russia and Iran, Damascus regained full control of Aleppo city in late 2016, after years of fighting and months of siege ended with a bloody insurgent retreat.
Lavrov blamed “armed provocations” by Nusra militants, formerly linked to Al Qaeda, for current conditions in eastern Ghouta, and for targeting Damascus.



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