20 children among over 100 killed in Assad’s airstrikes

Piled up on the floor of a make-shift morgue, these are the child victims of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s bloodiest airstrikes for three years.

Harrowing pictures show the wrapped-up bodies of some of the 20 boys and girls killed in a devastating bombardment of Syria’s eastern Ghouta rebel-held enclave.

The children were among more than 100 people who died in the pro-government airstrikes on Monday, making it the heaviest one-day death toll from airstrikes in the region since 2015, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Distressing pictures have emerged showing some of the child victims of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s bloodiest airstrikes for three years

Harrowing pictures show the wrapped-up bodies of some of the 20 boys and girls killed in a devastating bombardment of Syria's eastern Ghouta rebel-held enclave

Harrowing pictures show the wrapped-up bodies of some of the 20 boys and girls killed in a devastating bombardment of Syria’s eastern Ghouta rebel-held enclave

The children were among more than 100 people killed by pro-government airstrikes making it the heaviest one-day death toll from airstrikes in the region since 2015, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

The children were among more than 100 people killed by pro-government airstrikes making it the heaviest one-day death toll from airstrikes in the region since 2015, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

Distressing images show the corpses of young victims wrapped in blood-stained sheets on the floor of what looks like a medical facility.

They emerged in the wake of rocket strikes and shelling on a rebel-held suburb of the capital, Damascus. Warplanes, helicopter gunships and missiles were used in the attack.

The United Nations has called for an immediate ceasefire in the area on Monday, saying the situation was ‘spiralling out of control’ after an ‘extreme escalation in hostilities’. 

But today, fresh air strikes hit the area killing 45 civilians. 

The targeted suburbs – scattered across an area known as eastern Ghouta – have been subjected to weeks-long bombardment that has killed and wounded hundreds of people. 

The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations, a coalition of international agencies that funds hospitals in Syria, said bombs had hit five hospitals in the area on Monday.

Opposition activists say government forces have brought in more reinforcements in recent days, suggesting a major assault is imminent to recapture the area.

Both the Observatory and the opposition-affiliated Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, reported more airstrikes and shelling on Tuesday in eastern Ghouta as rebels pounded Damascus with mortar shells in retaliation.

Distressing images show the corpses of young victims wrapped in blood-stained sheets on the floor of what looks like a medical facility

Distressing images show the corpses of young victims wrapped in blood-stained sheets on the floor of what looks like a medical facility

The images emerged in the wake of rocket strikes and shelling of the town of Hamouria, a rebel-held suburbs of the capital, Damascus

The images emerged in the wake of rocket strikes and shelling of the town of Hamouria, a rebel-held suburbs of the capital, Damascus

The United Nations has called for an immediate ceasefire in the area on Monday, saying the situation was 'spiralling out of control' after an 'extreme escalation in hostilities'

The United Nations has called for an immediate ceasefire in the area on Monday, saying the situation was ‘spiralling out of control’ after an ‘extreme escalation in hostilities’

Syrian children cry at a make-shift hospital in Douma following air strikes on the Syrian village of Mesraba in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region.
Heavy Syrian bombardment has killed dozens of civilians in recent days

Syrian children cry at a make-shift hospital in Douma following air strikes on the Syrian village of Mesraba in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region.Heavy Syrian bombardment has killed dozens of civilians in recent days

Rebels hit some Damascus neighborhoods with mortar shells, killing one person and wounding six people, according to the state news agency SANA. On Tuesday morning, Damascus residents reported shelling on areas in central Damascus.

‘Shells are falling like rain. We are hiding in the corridor,’ a Damascus resident told The Associated Press, asking that her name not be mentioned for her own safety. She spoke while hiding in the corridor of an office building.

Videos have surfaced from the eastern suburbs showing paramedics pulling out the injured from under the rubble while others are seen franticly digging through the debris in the dark, in search for survivors.

‘The humanitarian situation of civilians in East Ghouta is spiraling out of control,’ said Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, in a statement late Monday.

‘It’s imperative to end this senseless human suffering now. Such targeting of innocent civilians and infrastructure must stop now,’ he said.

The violence in eastern Ghouta is part of a wider escalation in warfare on several fronts in Syria in recent months as President Bashar al-Assad pushes to end the seven-year rebellion against him.

Assad’s most powerful ally, Russia, has been pushing a diplomatic track at the same time as the increase in fighting, resulting in the establishment of several ‘de-escalation zones’.

Videos have surfaced from the eastern suburbs showing paramedics pulling out the injured from under the rubble while others are seen franticly digging through the debris in the dark, in search for survivors. This picture shows an injured man stuck under the rubble of a damaged building in Ghouta

Videos have surfaced from the eastern suburbs showing paramedics pulling out the injured from under the rubble while others are seen franticly digging through the debris in the dark, in search for survivors. This picture shows an injured man stuck under the rubble of a damaged building in Ghouta

Members of the Syrian Civil Defense run to help survivors from a street attacked by airstrikes and shelling carried out by Syrian government forces in Ghouta, suburb of Damascus

Members of the Syrian Civil Defense run to help survivors from a street attacked by airstrikes and shelling carried out by Syrian government forces in Ghouta, suburb of Damascus

Smoke rises from buildings following bombardment on the village of Mesraba in the rebel-held besieged Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on Monday

Smoke rises from buildings following bombardment on the village of Mesraba in the rebel-held besieged Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on Monday

Eastern Ghouta is in one of these areas, where violence is meant to be contained, but the agreement does not include a former al Qaeda affiliate which has a small presence there.

Other insurgent groups in eastern Ghouta, including Islamist factions, say the Syrian government and Russia are using the jihadist presence as a pretext to continue their bombardment.

Neither the Syrian military nor Russia commented on the renewed bombardment in eastern Ghouta, but they have often said they do not target civilians.

The Observatory said the intensified bombing was in preparation for a pro-government ground offensive against the enclave and that a rebel group there had foiled an attempt by Syria’s army to advance at al-Marj overnight.

 



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