Warplanes are carrying out round-the-clock bombardment of the densely populated cluster of towns and villages
UTV | BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad is poised for another crushing military victory over his opponents, defying the United Nations, the Trump administration and the appeals of the international community by pressing ahead with one of the bloodiest offensives of the Syria war.
The death toll is surging as the Syrian army and its Russian and militia allies seek to overrun the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, the largest remaining rebel stronghold in the vicinity of the capital.
Warplanes are carrying out round-the-clock bombardment of the densely populated cluster of towns and villages that rose up against Al Assad in 2011 and have been cut off from the outside world since 2013.
[ot-caption title=”The body of a Syrian girl lies at a makeshift clinic following Syrian government air strikes on Zamalka, in the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus on March 13, 2018. Syria’s conflict has killed more than 350,000 people, uprooted more than half the population and left much of the country in ruins since it erupted seven years ago. / AFP / AMER ALMOHIBANY” url=”http://utvnewsenglish.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/fda.jpg”]
Government forces have recaptured around half of the area, and it now seems only a matter of time before Eastern Ghouta joins the list of locations clawed back from rebel control – by brute force, negotiated cease-fire or a mixture of the two.
Doctors in Eastern Ghouta published photographs Tuesday of children they said had been burned by napalm. Chlorine bombs also have allegedly been dropped, despite warnings from senior US officials that the use of chemical weapons might draw a military response, foreign media reports.