President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are maintaining pressure on Eastern Ghouta with arrests, military conscriptions and restricted food supplies months after the capture of the Damascus suburb in order to assert the government’s grip over the former rebel stronghold.
The Syrian regime and its ally Russia had launched an all-out air assault on Ghouta in February to force antigovernment rebels to surrender. Hundreds of civilians were killed and the offensive drove most people to shelter underground. Rebels fired mortars on Damascus,...