30 civilians killed in airstrikes on Syria’s Eastern Ghouta
Airstrike
Cairo, March 17, 2018 (dpa/NAN) At least 30 people were killed on Saturday when airstrikes hit a town in Syria’s rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta, a war monitor said Saturday.
The airstrikes, which targeted a group of people who were trying to flee to government-controlled areas, also left dozens others wounded in the town of Zamalka, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The Britain-based watchdog added that about 10,000 people, including hundreds of women and children, had left the enclave via Hamouriya crossing on Saturday morning.
This brings the number of those who have fled the rebel-held territory, located on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, to government-held areas to 40,000 people since Friday, according to the monitor.
The warplanes reportedly carried out more than 20 raids on areas in the town of Harasta, it said.
The opposition Syrian Civil Defence said dozens of civilians were killed and scores others wounded in airstrikes on Zamalka and Ein Tarma.
It added that civil defence teams were working to evacuate the casualties.
The official SANA news agency said scores of civilians left Eastern Ghouta through a “safe corridor” in Harasta to a nearby international motorway.
The news agency quoted a source at Damascus Police Command as saying that 13 civilians were wounded by shelling from Ghouta rebels on residential neighbourhoods in Damascus.
At least 1,393 people, including 271 children and 173 women, have reportedly been killed in Eastern Ghouta since forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad started their onslaught on February 18, according to the observatory.
Eastern Ghouta is one of the few remaining areas in Syria under rebel control, but the rebels have been losing ground since the government began its latest offensive.
Rebels have repeatedly fired shells from Eastern Ghouta at government-controlled areas in and around Damascus.
Should the government recapture Eastern Ghouta, it would deal the hardest blow to the rebels since December 2016, when al-Assad regained full control of the northern city of Aleppo following a Russian-backed offensive. (dpa/NAN)
IAA/AFA
Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Felix Ajide