BEIRUT (AP) - Activists have launched a campaign in support of a Syrian infant who lost an eye and had his skull crushed in two separate government attacks on his besieged hometown near Damascus.

Karim was first wounded in late October when artillery shells struck a market in Hammouria, in rebel-held eastern Ghouta, killing his mother. Ten days later, after the weeks-old baby was discharged from a hospital, shrapnel tore through the roof of his house.

The Solidarity with Karim campaign is aimed at bringing attention to the government siege of eastern Ghouta, home to some 400,000 people.

The U.N. says roughly one in eight children in the area is malnourished, and that the government has refused to allow it to transfer nearly 500 people requiring medical evacuation to hospitals minutes away.

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