Over the last two weeks, hundreds of people have died in aerial bombings carried out by the Assad regime and Russia in Syria's Eastern Ghouta, a besieged and densely populated town. The regime did not only target enclaves belonging to armed oppositions but deliberately hit civilians as well. Opposition sources have also claimed that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons as well as other banned weapons, including chlorine gas.
"On Sunday, health authorities there said several people had symptoms consistent with chlorine gas exposure. On Monday, rescue workers and a monitoring group said seven small children had been killed by air and artillery strikes in one town," Reuters reported on Monday evening.
The international community, including the U.S. and the EU, has made appeals to stop the bloodshed in the town, where at least 400,000 civilians are trapped. Finally, the U.N. called for a truce in the Security Council. Yet, the regime continued its attacks under the pretext that opposition groups did not abide by the cease-fire.
Russia, the main backer of the Assad regime along with Iran, yesterday ordered a humanitarian pause in an attempt to demonstrate its clout in the deadly civil war. The pause was set for five hours to create a corridor to allow civilians to exit the area. The Russian Defense Ministry said it would help injured civilians leave the town. Yet, the pause was violated by the regime, and it is still not clear whether Russia had actually intended to evacuate wounded civilians.
More than 500 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in attacks by the regime and Russia in just one week. Opposition sources claimed the death toll surpassed 1,000 and possibly more bodies lay buried under the rubble. Due to the siege, aid and health organizations and civil defense units have been unable to reach the enclave where hundreds of buildings and entire neighborhoods lay in ruin. An opposition source recently told Daily Sabah that the regime also pounded a neighborhood in Damascus on Monday but later dismissed the claim as a mistake.
"The regime intensified its air campaign there earlier this month with devastating results. The U.N. estimates that three-quarters of private housing has been damaged. Much of the population has moved underground, with families pitching tents in basements and venturing out only to assess the damage to their property and buy food, a trip that frequently turns deadly amid the falling shells and bombs. Residents trapped in the wreckage of their own homes have bled to death as even rescuers were targeted. The intensity of the bombardment on Eastern Ghouta had eased somewhat in the past 48 hours, but the deadly strikes and shelling have not stopped," AFP reported yesterday.
The U.N. welcomed the pause. Its spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "Five hours is better than no hours, but we would like to see the end of all hostilities extended by 30 days, as stipulated by the Security Council."
Pointing to Russia's ability to stop the bloodshed, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert tweeted: "#Russia has the influence to stop these operations if it chooses to live up to its obligations under the #UNSC cease-fire. The U.S. calls for an immediate end to offensive operations and urgent access for humanitarian workers to treat the wounded and deliver badly needed humanitarian aid."
"The spokesman for Failaq al-Rahman, one of the main rebel groups in the Eastern Ghouta, accused Russia of presenting people with the choice of forced displacement or being killed in bombardment and siege and called this a 'Russian crime,'" Reuters wrote yesterday.
Despite the fact that as many as 400,000 people live in the city with scarce medical facilities and food, the regime has continued attacks and blocking the delivery of international aid. Even though the U.N. considers the siege and deprivation of water and food to be war crimes, all attempts to end the blockade have been unsuccessful. Russia, after becoming directly involved in the war in 2015, has demonstrated its influence by ordering a pause under the guise of humanitarian responsibility but only after a long bloodshed that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians.
