(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian regime forces late on Wednesday have attacked Eastern Ghouta Suburbs with Chlorine gas and barrel bombs, Syrian Civil Defense said.
The night attack on the village of Hammouriyah, has killed 13 people, including 4 children and two women, according to local activists and the rescuing group.
The gas affected many women and children but their number and condition are not yet clear, since intense attacks by the regime and its supporters are ongoing and the roads are closed, according to Anadoulu Agency.
The pro-Syrian regime television channel al-Mayadeen said Thursday that the regime army was close to taking the town of Hammouriyah in the southern pocket of Ghouta.
Al-Mayadeen showed crowds of civilians walking towards Syrian army positions in Hammouriyah carrying children and belongings.
On March 12, the Assad regime cut Eastern Ghouta into three distinct parts, to capture southern Hammouriyah, where it also conducted attacks, including poison gas attacks, on civilian areas.
160 sick and injured civilians have been evacuated from the besieged suburbs on Wednesday, in a second batch followed 190 wounded evacuated on Tuesday, local reporter said.
Russia’s Task Command in coastal Hmeimym base, which brokered the evacuation deal, said 350 people have crossed out of the stricken enclave.
Wednesday's bombardment by the regime and its ally Russia has killed 25 civilians, among them three children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"At least 25 civilians including three children were killed on Wednesday, most of them in regime air strikes and others in Russian raids on an area controlled by Faylaq al-Rahman," a rebel group, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
More than 1,400 people have been killed in four weeks of heavy bombing on Eastern Ghouta.
Meanwhile, local authorities outside Damascus say regime forces have cut off their town from a surrounding rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, isolating 20,000 residents with no access to aid.
A member of the local council of Harasta said Wednesday that residents have been in underground shelters for long periods amid heavy bombardment. He said government forces have seized local cemeteries, forcing residents to bury their dead elsewhere, AP reported.
Harasta is in Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held region that has been under a crippling siege and daily bombardment for weeks. Opposition activists say more than 1,100 civilians have been killed since the latest offensive began in February.
Regime forces have recently split the enclave in two and cut off the towns of Douma and Harasta.
The regime forces have intensified ground and aerial bombing overnight on Douma and Harasta as rebels still show fierce resistance despite the deadliest offensive, local reporter said Wednesday.
The Assad regime and Russia have been carrying out a fierce bombing campaign and ground assault against the besieged enclave since February 18, despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a countrywide ceasefire.
Eastern Ghouta is the last remaining opposition-controlled zone on the outskirts of the capital, and rebels there have regularly fired rockets onto Damascus.
Eastern Ghouta is home to around 400,000 people, living under a five-year siege that has made food and medical aid exceedingly rare.
Civil Defense group said rescuing works are underway as tens of bodies are still under the rubble. On Tuesday, they pulled out eight civilians, including seven from the same family, in Zamalka town.
A military media unit run by the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian government, said the army had entirely surrounded the town of Douma.
Rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta have vowed they will fight on. A statement issued by Free Syrian Army factions there late on Saturday said they had taken a decision not to accept a surrender and negotiated withdrawal.
Zaman Al Wasl
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