(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 37 people burned to death when Russia's warplanes pounded their underground shelter in Arbin town with Napalm and incendiary bombs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday.
"Russian air strikes and incendiary weapons killed the civilians in a basement from burning or suffocation" late on Thursday before a ceasefire came into effect in the area, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Russia has denied being directly involved in air strikes on Eastern Ghouta.
The Britain-based Observatory says it relies on flight patterns, aircraft involved and ammunition used to determine who carries them out.
The White Helmets, a civil defence organisation operating in rebel-held areas, said most of the dead were women and children.
In an image they shared on social media, rescue workers wrapped a blackened body in a blanket.
More than 1,600 civilians have died in Eastern Ghouta since the regime launched a blistering assault on the last rebel bastion near Damascus on February 18, the Observatory says.
The regime airstrikes continued on Eastern Ghouta region despite a ceasefire that the rebel group who controlled the area had said would take effect at midnight.
The air strikes hit Arbin, Ain Terma and Zamalka Friday morning and pro-regime forces had advanced into a large part of the town of Hezzeh after the midnight ceasefire deadline, according to the Observatory.
On Thursday, a spokesman for rebel group Failaq al-Rahman said the ceasefire had been agreed in principle.
The group will meet Russian negotiators Friday to negotiate an "end to human suffering" in the enclave they control, the group's spokesman told al-Hadath television channel in a phone call.
When asked by the interviewer if the negotiations would involve the rebels withdrawing from their enclave, Istanbul-based spokesman Wael Alwan said he could not comment on what would be discussed but "today is a session to find a solution to end this human suffering, whatever the cost."
The army's assault on eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel bastion near the capital, has been one of the most intense in Syria's seven-year-old war.
The Syrian government and its Russian allies used tactics that had proved successful elsewhere in Syria since Moscow joined the war in 2015: lay siege to an area, bombard it, launch a ground assault and finally offer safe passage out to rebels who agree to leave with their families.
Eastern Ghouta's rebels still hold only the town of Douma, under the control of Jaish al-Islam, and another pocket that includes Ain Terma, Arbin and Zamalka, under the control of Failaq al-Rahman.
On Thursday, Ahrar al-Sham rebel fighters withdrew from what had been a third rebel-held enclave in Eastern Ghouta, the town of Harasta. They were put on government buses and driven to an opposition-held area of northern Syria.
A second group of fighters is expected to leave Harasta on Friday.
The Observatory said air strikes also hit the Jaish al-Islam-controlled town of Douma Friday and there were clashes on the ground between the rebels and pro-government forces.
Hammurabi killed us all when he said, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Since then, laws only criminals and politicians who took advantage of such law based on retaliation not rehabilitation.
Syrian intelligence ordered its branches to track the activities of Professor Tayyeb Tizini, a Syrian veteran and intellectual personality as the leaked wanted list shows. The leak includes names of 1.5 mln people wanted for the Assad's security services.
Jaish al-Islam has reassured its stubborn in Ghouta, refuting any evacuation reports and deals with the Assad regime, according to its spokesman Hamza Bairiqdar.
Bairiqdar said in statement circulated online that the key rebel group in the stricken enclave has killed more than 250 troops and allied militants in the ongoing clashes.
Zaman Al Wasl
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.