ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A new barrage of air raids in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta near Damascus has killed at least 25 people on Sunday in one of four “de-escalation” zones established to curb violence in the country, according to a war monitor.
The deadliest raids occurred in Hammuriyeh, killing 17 civilians including six children and other towns of Arbeen, Beit Sawa, Harasta and Misraba which killed another 8 civilians, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
At least 75 people were wounded in the besieged rebel enclave, with the death toll expected to rise given the critical wounds suffered by tens of civilians.
Another 11 civilians were killed on Saturday as well.
The Observatory said this brings the total death toll to at least 191, including 43 children, in a matter of just three weeks due to regime bombardment even though the regime had agreed to a ceasefire in the region to coincide with the UN-led peace talks currently under way in Geneva.
As many as 400,000 people besieged in eastern Ghouta facing severe food and medical shortages have been completely cut-off from lifesaving assistance since September.
However, fighting has continued even though guarantor countries Turkey, Iran and Russia have established four de-escalation zones in the war-ravaged country, with Ghouta being one of them.
Last month the World Health Organization (WHO) said that more than 240 people are in need of urgent advanced medical care which included 29 "priority" patients – mostly children – who are in need of immediate medical evacuations.
"We have now reached a critical point, where the lives of hundreds of people, including many children, are at stake," said Elizabeth Hoff, head of WHO operations in Syria in a news release mid-November. "If they do not immediately get the medical care they urgently need, they will most likely die."
WHO has said that plans are in place for medical evacuations to hospitals and medical facilities in Damascus and surrounding areas as well as medicines ready for disbursement.
"At this stage, however, no formal approval for evacuations has been received from the responsible national authorities," added WHO in the release.
Syria has been embroiled in an almost seven-year-long civil war that has killed at least 400,000 people according to the United Nations. It has been complicated by the rise of ISIS, further destabilizing the country.
