Air strikes kill at least 17 civilians in Syria rebel enclave

AFP  |  Beirut 

Regime and Russian air strikes on a rebel-held enclave near the Syrian capital killed at least 17 civilians today, a war monitor said.

Eastern Ghouta, one of the last remaining opposition strongholds in the country, is the target of near-daily air raids.


The for Human Rights said Saturday's deadliest strikes had hit the district, killing 12 civilians including two children.

An in saw residential buildings with their facades blown open, collapsing into streets strewn with rubble.

Residents including members of the White Helmets rescue group rushed to rescue the wounded.

Running past a burning car, one man held a crying boy in his arms, while another carried the apparently lifeless body of a child through the streets.

said Syrian and Russian aircraft had "continued their intense bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, targeting several residential areas".

He said those killed also included two people in the district of and three in Erbin, adding that 35 people were also wounded in the three areas.

The Britain-based monitor relies on a network of sources inside and says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

At the start of the week, a coalition of rebels and jihadists including a former affiliate surrounded the only regime base in Eastern Ghouta, which lies east of and has been under a crippling regime siege since 2013.

The blockade has caused and medicine shortages for the enclave's estimated 400,000 inhabitants.

More than 340,000 people have been killed in and millions displaced since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sat, January 06 2018. 21:35 IST