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Aid convoy enters Syria's Eastern Ghouta despite airstrikes

IANS  |  Damascus 

A humanitarian aid convoy on Monday for the first time entered Eastern Ghouta, the besieged rebel-held enclave on the outskirts of Damascus, since an intense bombing campaign was launched against it by forces a few weeks ago.

The in said on that the convoy, which included UN and aid workers, had entered Douma, the largest city in the Eastern Ghouta region, with 46 truckloads of health and

It is the shipment to reach the besieged enclave since mid-February, despite a recent UN-backed ceasefire and short, daily truces ordered by Russia, the reported.

At least 719 people have been killed, many of them children, since mid-February.

Fourteen more civilians died in government airstrikes overnight, said activists.

Another 5,640 people had been injured in the Eastern Ghouta, an agricultural region east of Damascus, according to a local opposition-run health directorate.

Earlier in the day, the in said the rebels in Eastern Ghouta pledged to allow civilians to leave that area in exchange for the entry of aid.

Neither the daily pause ordered by -- a key ally of -- nor the ordering of a nationwide ceasefire by the has till now led to any humanitarian relief for the area where 400,000 people live.

The UN said that the "collective punishment of civilians was simply unacceptable".

"Instead of a much-needed reprieve, we continue to see more fighting, more death, and more disturbing reports of hunger and hospitals being bombed," UN regional humanitarian co-ordinator Panos Moumtzis said on Sunday.

Eastern Ghouta has been the major threat to since the rebels took hold in that area in 2012, with armed militants launching attacks on the capital with mortar shells and in some instance through implementing incursion attempts.

said on state television on Sunday that the offensive against "terrorism" should continue, and dismissed dire assessments of the humanitarian situation in the enclave as "ridiculous lies".

He said he supported a Russian-sponsored daily truce of five hours, to allow "the majority of those in Eastern Ghouta" to escape the areas under the control of "terrorists".

Meanwhile, the US had condemned the assault and blamed of killing innocent civilians in name of conducting counterterrorism operations.

--IANS

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

First Published: Mon, March 05 2018. 16:50 IST
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