More than two weeks of ferocious bombardment of Syria\u2019s rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta have left 800 civilians dead, a monitoring group said Tuesday in a new toll.
\nThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 177 children were among the dead.
\nRussian-backed regime forces launched their blistering assault on Eastern Ghouta, the last opposition bastion near Damascus, on February 18.
\nAt least nine civilians were reported killed earlier on Tuesday in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta as fresh regime air strikes and clashes shook the rebel enclave outside Damascus, a monitor and AFP correspondents said.
\nRegime air strikes killed nine civilians in the town of Jisreen early Tuesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
\nWith the latest deaths, 95 civilians have been killed in regime bombardment of the battered enclave since early Monday, it said.
\nRussian-backed regime troops have advanced steadily since launching an assault on the last major rebel stronghold near the capital on February 18.
\nAs of early Tuesday they controlled around 40 percent of the enclave after seizing a further area overnight, the Observatory said.
\nIt reported clashes Tuesday in the northeast, center and southeast of the enclave.
\nIn total more than 780 civilians — including 170 children — have been killed in Eastern Ghouta since February 18, according to the Observatory.
\nThe enclave’s 400,000 residents have been living under siege since 2013, facing severe food and medicine shortages even before the latest onslaught. Aid deliveries on Monday had to be cut short amid continued fighting.
\nRegime warplanes pounded other areas of Eastern Ghouta including the main town of Douma early Tuesday, as well as the towns of Sabqa and Hammuriyeh overnight, the Observatory said.
\nThe strikes on Douma reduced homes to piles of rubble on the sides of roads, an AFP correspondent there said.
\nAn AFP reporter in Hammuriyeh said air strikes overnight targeted the town, with only a few residents emerging from the safety of their cellars after day broke.
\nLate Monday, the Observatory reported 18 people suffered breathing difficulties following a strike by a military aircraft in Hammuriyeh, without being able to specify the cause of the illnesses.
\nMore than 340,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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