(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 9 civilians have been killed on Monday in renewed airstrikes on the besieged Eastern Ghouta suburbs near the Capital, local activists said.
Monday’s strikes targeted Madyara suburb topping the death toll to 160 people, including 30 children, since the regime army backed by Russian jets began an offensive nearly two weeks ago to take the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local activists
On Sunday, the aerial and ground shelling killed 13 people in Misraba, and 10 more in Madyara and neighbouring suburbs.
Eastern Ghouta is one of several “de-escalation” zones across western Syria, where Russia has brokered deals to ease the fighting between rebels and Bashar al-Assad’s government.
The regime offensive began after rebels stormed an army complex in the heart of the city’s Eastern Ghouta on November 14.
The fortress-like Military Vehicles Administration in the regime-held part of Harasta town has long been used to strike at the densely populated Eastern Ghouta.
Eastern Ghouta is facing a critical humanitarian crisis, the UN and local activists say, and bring many more to the brink of starvation.
According to the Syrian American Medical Society, who have doctors working in the area, it received patients "suffering from constricted pupils, coughing, vomiting, and bradypnea" - or abnormally slow breathing.
They said that the "chemical agent may have been phosphorous" but warned that lack of medical supplies in the besieged district made it "difficult for doctors to effectively diagnose and respond accordingly".
Meanwhile, the regime's delegation delayed its departure to the peace talks due to resume in Geneva on Tuesday, The New Arab reported.
The pro-Syrian government newspaper al-Watan cited on Monday sources in Geneva saying the Syrian government was not pleased by the statement made last week in a Syrian opposition meeting in Riyadh.
In the statement, Syrian opposition groups maintained the long held demand of President Assad to step down before a political transition, a demand Damascus viewed as "back to square one."
The Syrian opposition agreed in a joint declaration in the creation of a united inclusive opposition delegation for the UN-led intra-Syrian talks.
Also, the Russian-backed Congress of Syrian peoples in the Russian city of Sochi has been postponed until February, Russia's RIA news agency reported Monday, citing a diplomatic source, Reuters reported.
The event, called the Syrian Congress on National Dialogue, was initially to be held in November but some opposition groups rejected the idea of the meeting, initially proposed by President Vladimir Putin.
More than 470,000 people are estimated to have been killed and millions displaced in the Syrian war, which began in 2011.
Zaman A Wasl
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