At least 23 civilians were killed on Monday as Syrian government airstrikes pounded a rebel-held enclave near the capital Damascus, a monitor said.

The region of Eastern Ghouta is home to an estimated 400,000 people living under government siege and facing escalating bombardment in recent weeks.

“Dozens of airstrikes hit several areas in Eastern Ghouta, killing 23 civilians including four children,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

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The deadliest raids hit a market in the town of Beit Sawa, killing nine civilians including two children.

Another six civilians, including a young girl, were killed in bombardment on the town of Hazzeh.

The remaining eight were killed in strikes across the rest of the besieged region, and more than 80 people were wounded, the Observatory said.

An AFP correspondent in Eastern Ghouta could hear warplanes above, circling around the town every few minutes.

Eastern Ghouta is supposed to be one of four de-escalation zones agreed last year, but violence has ramped up there in recent weeks.

This month alone, chlorine is suspected of having been used on two occasions in munitions launched by the regime on Eastern Ghouta, causing respiratory problems among civilians.

On Friday, Syrian regime bombardment killed at least 11 civilians.

The state news agency SANA said Monday that a woman was killed and three people wounded in rebel rocket fire from Eastern Ghouta onto the capital’s regime-controlled district of Bab Touma.

Syria’s war has killed more than 340,000 people and displaced millions since it began in March 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. </s> At least 23 civilians were killed on February 5 as Syrian government forces launched air strikes against the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta near the capital Damascus, a monitor said.

Four children were among those killed, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The Observatory says at least 70 have been wounded.

The activist-run Ghouta Media Center also reported that 23 were killed.

An estimated 400,000 residents live in Eastern Ghouta, besieged by Syrian government forces.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP </s> BEIRUT - Accelerating bombardment by the government and its allies killed at least 35 people in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta region near Damascus in 24 hours, a war monitor said on Monday.



The death toll from air strikes, rocket fire and shelling on several areas of the besieged enclave of towns and farms included five children, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.



Rebel groups in eastern Ghouta fired mortars at areas of Damascus held by the government, killing a child and injuring eight other people, Syrian state media said.



Eastern Ghouta, the largest rebel bastion left near the capital, is home to almost 400,000 people according to the United Nations and has been besieged since 2013.



Syrian President Bashar Assad has gained momentum in the war since Russia entered on his side in 2015, pushing the rebels from big cities and retaking much of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State.



The Observatory said the army and its allies were preparing a military offensive in eastern Ghouta.



Jihadist rebels, including some loyal to Islamic State, also hold much of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in the southern suburbs of Damascus. </s> A Syrian boy receives treatment as victims of reported regime air strikes on Hamouria, Saqba and Kafr Batna are brought to a make-shift hospital in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on March 7, 2018. Photo by AFP/Amer Almohibany

Syrian forces pursued a relentless air and ground offensive against Eastern Ghouta on Thursday, moving closer to retaking the rebel enclave but also depriving desperate civilians of vital aid.

More than 930 civilians have been killed in the nearly three-week assault on the last rebel enclave outside the capital, where dozens suffered overnight from a suspected chlorine attack.

On another front in Syria's complex seven-year war, pro-Turkey rebels seized control of the key northern town of Jandairis from Kurdish fighters.

Russia-backed government forces have retaken more than half of Eastern Ghouta, a monitor says, since launching their devastating offensive on the enclave on February 18.

The fighting has prompted international outrage, culminating in the UN Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire, aid deliveries and evacuations.

On Thursday, 24 civilians were killed in air strikes and rocket fire on Eastern Ghouta, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

An aid delivery planned for Thursday was meant to bring relief to war-weary civilians inside Eastern Ghouta, which is home to 400,000 inhabitants who have been living under government siege since 2013.

But with bombardment continuing, the joint convoy between the United Nations, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Syrian Arab Red Crescent could not go through.

"The movement of the convoy was not authorized by the Syrian authorities due to security reasons," said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN's humanitarian coordination office (OCHA).

It marks the second time this week aid operations have been disrupted by military developments, with food deliveries cut short Monday due to bombardment.

Eastern Ghouta towns and villages have fallen in quick succession in recent days, with regime forces on the verge of cutting the remaining rebel-held territory into two isolated pockets.

A military official said the regime would open up a new "humanitarian corridor" for civilians wishing to flee from the south of the enclave.

But Moscow accused the rebels of having attacked two Syrian army checkpoints, causing casualties and further holding up aid deliveries. They were "doing everything possible to prevent residents from leaving", it said in a statement.

In the town of Hammuriyeh, AFP's correspondent saw motionless bodies lying in the streets on Thursday after a night of ferocious bombing.

Dozens of civilians were treated in the town for breathing difficulties late Wednesday, with medics reporting symptoms consistent with a toxic attack.

Doctors at one facility treated at least 29 patients with signs of exposure to chlorine, according to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which supports hospitals in Eastern Ghouta.

It said victims were suffering from shortness of breath, wheezing, and redness of the eyes.

Several families were seen trying to reach fresh air late Wednesday on the roof of a four-storey building in Hammuriyeh, after air strikes on their neighborhood.

"I'm going to suffocate," two children screamed as rescue workers carried them down from the roof.

Regime forces have been repeatedly accused of using chlorine on Eastern Ghouta in recent weeks, which both the government and Russia have staunchly denied.

Syria's war has killed more than 340,000 people and displaced millions since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

It has since spiralled into a complex conflict involving world powers.

Since January 20, Turkey-led rebels have pressed an assault on the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in the north of the country.

On Thursday, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels seized the town of Jandairis, the Observatory said.

"Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels took full control of Jandairis... after heavy and sustained bombardment by the Turkish aviation," it said.

A rebel commander from the Turkey-backed Faylaq al-Sham group told an AFP reporter in Jandairis the town was under full control.

"The entire city of Jandairis was liberated from the secessionist gangs," said the commander, who goes by the name Abu Saleh.

"The fight will continue until the whole of Afrin is cleared of them."

Turkey says the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) who control the enclave are a "terrorist" group.

But the Kurdish militia have also formed the backbone of a US-backed alliance that has successfully fought the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria.

The UN Security Council on February 24 demanded a 30-day cessation of hostilities across the country, but the resolution has done little to bring relief to civilians.

The UN's top body met behind closed doors on Wednesday in an attempt to shore up the ceasefire.

UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura briefed the meeting and offered to help broker a deal with Russia to allow fighters in Eastern Ghouta to leave, a diplomat said.

Rebel groups operating in Eastern Ghouta have so far refused to discuss evacuating the enclave and have been firing rockets and artillery into eastern areas of Damascus in recent weeks, leaving at least 32 dead the Observatory says. </s> Heavy Syrian regime bombardment of rebel-held Eastern Ghouta killed at least 44 civilians on Monday, a monitor said, as government forces appeared to prepare for a ground assault.

Four children were among the dead in the heavy bombardment on Eastern Ghouta, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The regime is bombing Eastern Ghouta to pave the way for a ground offensive," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

Held by rebels since 2012, the suburb of Eastern Ghouta is now the last opposition-controlled pocket around Damascus and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dispatched reinforcements there in an apparent bid to retake it.

The Observatory and Syrian daily newspaper Al-Watan had said negotiations were under way for the evacuation of jihadist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which controls small pockets of Eastern Ghouta.

But government forces ramped up military pressure on Eastern Ghouta starting Sunday, sending more than 260 rockets sailing onto opposition-controlled towns there.

The bombing continued Monday, sending terrified civilians in the enclave searching for cover, AFP's correspondents said.

Eastern Ghouta has been cut off from the world, besieged by the government for years.

Regime troops carried out a relentless five-day bombing campaign earlier this month that left around 250 civilians dead in the enclave and hundreds more wounded.

Surveillance planes buzzed overhead on Monday before carrying out raids on a pair of Eastern Ghouta towns, AFP's correspondents in the enclave said.

Residents walking outside in the nearby town of Hammuriyeh could be seen rushing inside in a panic as soon as they heard the sound of airplanes.

Alaa al-Din, a 23-year-old Syrian in Hammuriyeh, said civilians were afraid of a potential government offensive.

"Ghouta's fate is unknown. We've got nothing but God's mercy and hiding out in our basements," he told AFP on Monday.

According to the Observatory, the regime began dispatching military reinforcements to Eastern Ghouta on February 5, the same day it launched a fierce five-day bombing campaign on the region.

The war monitor said Monday morning's air strikes on Al-Shayfuniyeh left people wounded and caused material damage.

Regime troops fired more than 260 rockets on towns across Eastern Ghouta on Sunday, it said.

The rockets, as well as artillery fire and some air strikes, killed at least 17 civilians across the enclave on Sunday, according to the Observatory.

"In just a few hours, all of Eastern Ghouta was sprayed with rockets," Alaa al-Din recalled.

Eastern Ghouta is held by two main Islamist factions, Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman, both of which denied being in talks with the regime.

The regime is keen to regain control of the area to halt the deadly salvo of rockets and mortars that those factions have fired on Damascus.

About half a dozen rockets hit the capital on Sunday night, AFP correspondents said. State news agency SANA reported that one person was killed in the shelling.

More than 20 civilians have been killed by rebel fire this month alone in regime-held Damascus.

All was quiet in the capital on Monday but since rumours of an imminent assault on Eastern Ghouta started spreading, residents of neighbourhoods that are nearest to the rebel enclave started packing their bags.

Jawad al-Obros lives with his mother, father and sister in Al-Qassaa, which lies just one kilometre from Jobar, a major flashpoint on the edge of the Ghouta enclave.

Shells have rained around his home in recent weeks and the 30-year-old man this weekend started asking about hotel prices in Yaafour, which lies to the west, on the other side of the city.

"We're tired of this situation. It seems that there's no solution but a full-blown military one. We've been patient for a long time, and now it's time that we rest," he said. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say at least 23 civilians have been killed in intense government airstrikes on a rebel-held suburb near Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says waves of airstrikes hit at least five neighborhoods in the Eastern Ghouta suburb, the only remaining rebel stronghold near the capital, Damascus.

The activist-run Ghouta Media Center also reported that 23 were killed. The Observatory says at least 70 have been wounded and that the number of casualties is likely to climb as rescuers operations are underway.

Among those killed was a rescue worker from the first-responders team known as White Helmets.

The two groups say he died on duty in Arbeen, one of the neighborhoods hit by the airstrikes.

An estimated 400,000 residents live in Eastern Ghouta, besieged by Syrian government forces.

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The media arm of Lebanon's Hezbollah group and an opposition activist group say the second-largest rebel group in eastern Ghouta has declared a cease-fire in order to negotiate leaving the area.

The group's Al-Manar TV and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say Failaq al-Rahman will abide by a cease-fire as of midnight Thursday. Hezbollah is fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

There was no immediate comment from Failaq al-Rahman.

The announcement about Failaq al-Rahman's plans came shortly after hundreds of Syrian opposition fighters from a different group began evacuating a key besieged town in eastern Ghouta, near the capital Damascus.

If Failaq al-Rahman decides to evacuate eastern Ghouta, the only group that remains in the area will be the powerful Army of Islam.

Reporters Without Borders says it is very concerned about the reported disappearance of an opposition TV reporter in eastern Ghouta.

The group Thursday called on the international community to do everything possible to protect journalists caught in the fighting.

It said Hadi al-Monajid is eastern Ghouta correspondent of Dubai-based Syrian opposition TV channel Orient News, which has had no news of him since March 17. His colleagues fear he has been arrested.

Syrian troops have recently taken control of 80 percent of eastern Ghouta from rebels.

It quoted Orient News as saying that government forces arrested members of the al-Monajid family days before his disappearance and threatened to kill them in order to force him to surrender.

It added that pro-government newspapers meanwhile say he surrendered of his own free will.

A Syrian monitoring group and the opposition's Civil Defense group are reporting that an airstrike on a market northwest of the country has killed ast least 28 people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrike on a market in the village of Harem killed 28 people, including 11 children and women. It added that the figure could still rise since many of the wounded are in critical condition.

The opposition's Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets said the airstrike killed 37 and caused wide material damage. It said most of the dead were women or children.

Harem is the northwestern province of Idlib that is mostly controlled by rebels and has been subjected to intense airstrikes recently.

U.S. officials and members of the U.S.-led coalition have visited the northern Syrian town of Manbij days after Turkey's president threatened to expand his army's military operations to the area.

Videos by the Kurdish Furat Media Network showed army Maj. Gen. James Jarrard, head of the special operations element of the U.S.-led coalition, and other officials touring the local market in Manbij that is controlled by the U.S-backed Syrian Kurdish forces Thursday.

The Kurdish Network said the visit was to reassure the local population amid Turkish threats.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that after his troops' capture of the northwestern Kurdish town of Afrin, his military aims to head east toward areas controlled by the Kurds.

U.S forces have bases in Manbij and Turkey's threats threaten a confrontation between the two NATO allies.

Hundreds of rebels and their relatives have started leaving a besieged town in eastern Ghouta to the northwestern opposition-held province of Idlib.

State TV showed dozens of buses carrying more than 400 rebels and hundreds of their family members moving from Harasta toward Idlib after sunset Thursday.

The deal to evacuate Harasta could see the bombed-out town handed over to the government following years of siege.

The deal is the first such arrangement for a town inside the besieged enclave, which has endured more than one month of relentless shelling and bombardment as the government, backed by its ally Russia, pushed to retake the region after seven years of revolt.

The monthlong violence in eastern Ghouta left 1,500 dead and about 80 percent of the area captured by the government.

Syrian state media says rebel shelling on Damascus has killed six people and wounded 13 others.

The SANA news agency says 16 shells struck the capital on Thursday.

Rebels are under intense pressure outside the capital, where government forces are advancing against them under the cover of unremitting airstrikes.

Rebels have lost hold of 80 percent of the eastern Ghouta suburbs since government forces launched their offensive more than one month ago. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist-run monitoring group, says more than 1,500 civilians have been killed by government fire.

More than 40 people were killed in Damascus on Tuesday, when rockets fired by rebels landed on a market.

Turkey's prime minister says three Turkish soldiers were killed in an explosion in the northern Syrian town of Afrin during a mission to clear it of explosives believed to have been left behind by retreating Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Binali Yildirim said the soldiers died Thursday from a blast caused by an improvised explosive device. Three other soldiers were wounded, the military said.

Turkish forces and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters captured Afrin on Sunday, eight weeks after they launched an operation to clear the town and surrounding country-side of Syrian Kurdish militia, which Turkey considers to be a security threat.

Thursday's deaths raise the number of Turkish troops killed in Afrin to 49. Turkey says some 270 Syrian opposition fighters have also died.

The Syrian government says the planned evacuation from a besieged town in the suburbs of Damascus has started. The town of Harasta will under the deal be handed over to government forces.

More than 10 government buses drove into Harasta to transport the rebels and civilians out of the town on Thursday.

Syrian state media say the evacuation began with the departure of 238 people, including 36 gunmen and 202 civilians, but no buses were seen crossing out of the town, which is part of the embattled rebel enclave known as eastern Ghouta, on the edge of Damascus.

Syrian rebels have released 13 of their prisoners to the government, ahead of a planned evacuation that will see a besieged town in the suburbs of Damascus handed over to government forces.

The men, who identified themselves to the media as soldiers and civilians attached to the Syrian army, who were captured by rebels in the fighting for Harasta, cried in relief. They thanked God, the Syrian army, and President Bashar Assad for their freedom.

Al-Manar TV, which belongs to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, meanwhile said the government released five "terrorists" to rebels, in exchange. Hezbollah is a key ally of the Syrian government.

Some 7,500 rebels, their family members, and other civilians are expected to leave Harasta on Thursday, following years of siege against the town.

The Russian military says more than 1,000 civilians have left the rebel-held eastern suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, this morning.

Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin told Russian news agencies in Syria that the civilians left through the Wafideen crossing on Thursday morning.

A spokesman for a rebel faction in the region, known as eastern Ghouta, said earlier that the rebels and their families were expected to leave a besieged town in an evacuation deal that will see the town handed over to the government following years of siege and bombardment.

Syrian rebels and their families are expected to leave a besieged town in the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, in an evacuation deal that will see the town handed over to the government following years of bombardment.

Monther Fares, a spokesman for the rebel faction Ahrar al-Sham, says his group's fighters are preparing to leave. He says fighters are waiting for buses to arrive to take them and their families to other rebel-held areas in north Syria.

The government-controlled Military Media Center says 1,500 rebels and 6,000 civilians will leave Harasta on Thursday.

The deal is modeled after others that have had rebels surrender swaths of territory around the capital and other major cities to the government. The U.N. and human rights groups have condemned such arrangements as "forced displacement."

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government air strikes and artillery killed 71 people in the eastern Ghouta pocket near Damascus over the past 24 hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Monday.

The Britain-based group said bombardment of the insurgent-held enclave started escalating on Sunday evening, wounding 325 people. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military. </s> BEIRUT: A surge in attacks by the Syrian government and its allies killed 94 people in the rebel pocket of eastern Ghouta in the space of 24 hours, a war monitoring group said on Monday.

Air strikes, rocket fire and shelling on the besieged suburbs of Damascus also wounded another 325 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

There was no comment from the Syrian military. The Damascus government says it only targets militants.

Factions in Ghouta fired mortars at districts of Damascus, killing a child and wounding eight others, Syrian state media said. Troops and allied forces struck militant targets there in response, the state news agency SANA said.

The United Nations says nearly 400,000 people live in eastern Ghouta, a pocket of satellite towns and farms under government siege since 2013.

Panos Moumtzis, U.N. regional coordinator for the Syria crisis, said an "extreme escalation in hostilities" had killed at least 40 civilians and injured more than 150 on Monday.

"The humanitarian situation of civilians in East Ghouta is spiraling out of control," he said in a statement. "Many residents have little choice but to take shelter in basements and underground bunkers with their children."

The British-based Observatory said the latest escalation started on Sunday, and the dead included 18 children.

The local civil defence group said warplanes and artillery had pounded Saqba, Jisreen, and other towns. The rescue service, which operates in rebel territory, said strikes killed 20 people and wounded dozens in the town of Hammouriyeh alone on Monday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military gained momentum in the war after Russian war planes entered on his side in 2015, pushing rebels out of major cities, and retaking much of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State.

Wael Olwan, spokesman for the Failaq al-Rahman rebel group in eastern Ghouta, said there had been heavy bombing throughout the day.

"There are no ground invasions in the field and clashes, but there is very big shelling and preparatory fire," he said.

The United Nations said last week Syria was seeing some of the worst fighting of the war, which is entering its eighth year. The multi-sided conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

Malnutrition has increased sharply in eastern Ghouta with hardly any food aid reaching the residents, the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) says.

Rising violence reportedly pushed some 15,000 civilians to flee their homes last month, taking refuge in makeshift shelters or basements in the enclave, OCHA said.

Eastern Ghouta falls under ceasefire plans for rebel territory that Russia has brokered with the help of Turkey and Iran.

Residents and aid workers say the "de-escalation" deals have brought no relief. Food, fuel, and medicine have dwindled.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Moscow and its allies could "deploy our experience of freeing Aleppo ... in the eastern Ghouta situation".

With support from Russia and Iran, Damascus regained full control of the city of Aleppo in late 2016, after years of fighting and months of siege ended with an insurgent retreat.

Lavrov blamed "armed provocations" by Nusra militants, formerly linked to al Qaeda, for current conditions in eastern Ghouta.

The two main factions in Ghouta, which include Failaq al-Rahman, accuse Moscow and the Syrian army of breaching the de-escalation agreements. They say they have used the presence of a few hundred fighters from al Qaeda's former Syria branch as a pretext to attack the enclave.
Syrian government airstrikes pound rebel-held Eastern Ghouta enclave near the capital Damascus, killing at least 23 civilians including four children.