(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 17 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in fresh airstrikes on besieged Eastern Ghouta suburbs, activists and rescuing group said on Saturday.
The volunteer first-responders Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, reported 12 people killed in Hamouriyeh saying they included four children. They said five others were killed in other areas.
Five more people were killed neighboring suburbs, rising the death toll to 46 in three days of heavy bombing by the Assad regime and Russia
The Syrian Observatory Observatory for Human Rights reported more than 40 airstrikes on Eastern Ghouta.
The regime forces and allied militias have stepped up aerial and ground bombing on the last rebel stronghold around the capital, pushing to reach troops trapped in Harasta town.
State television said "army units had launched an assault to break the siege" of the Armoured Vehicle Base where some 250 soldiers are believed to be cut off, according to AFP.
Activists denied to Zaman al-Wasl pro-regime media reports of progress in Harasta.
Eastern Ghouta is one of the last remaining opposition strongholds in Syria and has itself been under government siege since 2013, causing severe food and medicine shortages for up to 400,000 residents.
Last Wednesday, at least 29 civilians were killed in Eastern Ghouta by Russian and regime bombardments, the Observatory said.
Twenty were killed in Russian air strikes in the town of Misraba, while the remainder died in regime raids and shelling in other areas.
Seven children and 11 women were among those killed, said the head of the war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
The war in Syria has killed more than 470,000 people and displaced millions from their homes since it began in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Zaman A Wasl
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