Assad forces step up offencive on Eastern Ghouta, 40 civilians killed

(Zaman Al Wasl)-Heavy Syrian regime bombardment of rebel-held Eastern Ghouta killed at least 40 civilians Monday, a monitor said, as government forces appeared to prepare for a ground assault.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes battered the town of Hammourieh in Eastern Ghouta, leaving 20 civilians dead.

Another 20, including a woman, were killed in air raids, artillery fire, and rockets that hit elsewhere in the enclave.

"The regime is bombing Eastern Ghouta to pave the way for a ground offensive," Observatory head, Rami Abdel-Rahman said.

Held by rebels since 2012, Eastern Ghouta is now the last opposition-controlled pocket around Damascus.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has dispatched reinforcements there in recent weeks in an apparent bid to retake the region.

The Observatory and Syrian daily newspaper Al-Watan had said negotiations were under way for the evacuation of militants from the enclave.

But government forces ramped up military pressure on Eastern Ghouta starting Sunday, sending more than 260 rockets sailing onto opposition-controlled towns there.

The bombing continued Monday, sending terrified civilians in the enclave searching for cover, AFP's correspondents said.

In the town of Misraba, eastern Ghouta, airstrikes targeting residential areas on Sunday killed four civilians, including a child, a civil defense official said on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

Artillery fire also hit residential areas in besieged Eastern Ghouta, killing four civilians, including three children in the town of Merc and another in Sakba.

Eastern Ghouta falls within a network of de-escalation zones -- endorsed by Turkey, Russia and Iran -- in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

Nevertheless, the Syrian regime continues to target residential parts of the city, killing at least 539 people -- and injuring more than 2,000 others -- since Dec. 29 of last year.

Home to some 400,000 civilian residents, Eastern Ghouta has remained under a crippling regime siege for the last five years.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011, when the regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.

Large military reinforcements arrived to the edge of Eastern suburbs of Damascus to back the regime forces fighting in the major offensive against rebel factions, rebel commander told Zaman al-Wasl on Sunday.

Said Saif, the spokesman of the Ahmed al-Abdu Brigade said, “On Saturday [we] have witnessed the dispersal of several regime forces flying checkpoints all along the crossroads linking the al-Atibet checkpoint east of al-Dumayr city and the Abu Ratb checkpoint east of the city. The move comes as the forces of Suhail al-Hassan, known as the Tiger, arrive to the al-Dumayr area in the Eastern Qalamoun in preparation for launching a large-scale military operation on the Eastern Ghouta.” (With Agencies)

Zaman Al Wasl