AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian jets and artillery struck rebel-held eastern Damascus suburbs on Saturday a day after a Russian sponsored ceasefire with a rebel group agreed a halt of fighting in the last opposition enclave in the capital, rebels and witnesses said.

FILE PHOTO: Children walk past rubble of damaged buildings at Ain Tarma, eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta, Syria July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh/File Photo

The Russian defense ministry said on Friday it had reached a ceasefire that took effect at 21.00 hrs Moscow time (1800 GMT) with Failaq al Rahman, the main Free Syrian Army (FSA) group fending off a two-month widescale Syrian army offensive in Jobar district and nearby town of Ain Tarma.

A spokesman for Failaq al Rahman said both Jobar, which lies some 2 km (1.2 miles) east of the Old City wall, and nearby Ain Tarma on the edge of Eastern Ghouta witnessed army strikes and shelling soon after the ceasefire went into effect.

“After the first few hours ... there were many violations midnight they dropped barrel bombs and from the morning there have been strikes across the Ghouta,” Wael Alwan, spokesman for the group, said.

At least five civilians were killed in the towns of Hamouriya and Zalamka and fighters said there were several case of suffocation from rockets filled with chlorine that were fired at the front lines of Jobar and Ain Terma, he added.

The Syrian army elite 4th Division has been trying unsuccessfully to storm Jobar and residents say the army has retaliated for its heavy losses by shelling residential areas, leaving scores killed and wounded since the campaign was launched.

Moscow said on Friday that the ceasefire meant an earlier one announced last month in Eastern Ghouta now included all the moderate opposition groups in the main rebel stronghold that stretches from eastern to northeastern suburbs of Damascus.

The army has not commented on the latest Russian agreement with Failaq al Rahman whom it considers a terrorist group that threatens the capital. It however says it abides by truces Moscow has brokered.

Many fighters welcomed the ceasefire to help alleviate plight of civilians most hurt by aerial strikes but remain deeply skeptical about Russia’s readiness to get the Syrian army to stick to the terms of a cessation of fighting in several de-escalation zones that Russia has already announced

Moscow had already began to deploy military police in several areas across Syria such as in southwestern Syria where “de-escalation” zones had been announced.

“This shows the lack of seriousness by the Russia to put pressure on the regime,” Alwan added.

Failaq al Rahman said the Syrian army bombardment appeared to be an attempt to wreck a ceasefire deal whose main points included deploying Russian military police along the frontline, the release of detainees and allowing humanitarian goods into the besieged Eastern Ghouta.

“It seems the regime wants to take advantage of the opportunity to take revenge for its big losses during their many attempts to storm the Ghouta before the Russian military police enter to disengage the forces,” Alwan told Reuters.

Outnumbered and outgunned, local rebels fortified in elaborate tunnels and deploying ambushes have repelled repeated attempts to storm their stronghold, inflicting dozens of losses on the army since the campaign began. </s> Syrian government troops have launched a ground offensive in eastern Ghouta, witnesses said, clashing with rebel forces hours after the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire across Syria.

Witnesses told NBC News that within minutes of the resolution being passed on Saturday, warplanes were targeting residential neighborhoods in the region, where civilians sheltered in basements.

Syrian civil defense workers, known as the White Helmets, said Sunday that there had been “renewed aerial and artillery bombardment of most of the cities and towns of East Ghouta.”

They reported on Twitter that two civilians had been killed in the cities of Saqba and Hamouriya, while many others had been injured. NBC News could not verify the reports. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes hit the town of Shifouniyeh in the rebel enclave.

Noor Adam, who lives 500 meters from the frontline near Damascus, told NBC News that many people in his neighborhood were hiding underground. “The basements are full of children and women,” he said, adding that he could hear the clashes between the Syrian army and rebel fighters.

Witnesses said that hospitals were full, while one doctor, Abo Zaher, who lives in eastern Ghouta, told NBC News two medical centers had been hit in airstrikes on Sunday.

Saturday’s Security Council resolution followed seven days of air strikes and shelling by the Syrian government and its allies, in what has been one of the fiercest air-assaults of the seven-year war, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Several previous ceasefires have unraveled quickly in Syria, where government forces have gained the upper hand with the help of key allies Iran and Russia.

The leaders of Germany and France urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call to put “maximum” pressure on the Syrian government to stop fighting in eastern Ghouta, a German government spokesman said on Sunday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron made clear that a ceasefire was the basis for progress towards a political solution in the framework of the U.N.-led Geneva peace process, the German spokesman said.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Sunday that it was counting on foreign supporters of anti-government forces in Syria to ensure that the ceasefire was observed.

A Syrian man walks next to damaged buildings following regime air strikes in the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, February, 25, 2018. HAMZA AL-AJWEH / AFP – Getty Images

“We count upon foreign patrons of anti-government militant groups … to ensure that their charges stop combat activities in the interests of the quickest and safe transit of humanitarian convoys,” the ministry said on its website.

Ingy Sedky, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said it appeared to be relatively calm across Damascus compared with recent days, but that airplanes could be heard overhead.

Sedky said the ICRC were currently unable to deliver aid to eastern Ghoutta due to security concerns and it was still unclear when they would be able to launch an aid convoy.

“While the ceasefire is a positive step, what is more important for us now is to obtain the necessary security guarantees from all sides who are fighting in eastern Ghouta in order to be able to proceed and deliver aid. It is very hard to know when this can happen,” she told NBC News.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis denounced the “inhuman” violence in Syria Sunday, backing the cease-fire so that food and medicine can reach desperate Syrians and the sick and wounded can be evacuated.

Francis led thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square in praying for an “immediate” end to hostilities.

“The month of February has been one of the most violent in seven years of conflict: hundreds, thousands of civilian victims, children, women and the elderly, hospitals have been hit, people can’t get food. All this is inhuman,” he said, adding, “You can’t fight evil with evil.” </s> BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - Warplanes bombed rebel-held towns east of Damascus on Wednesday, striking residential areas where Russia had declared a ceasefire less than 24 hours earlier and leaving dozens injured, according to residents, rebels and a monitoring group.

Air raids and artillery hit three towns in Eastern Ghouta, part of Syria's Damascus province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A ceasefire had been agreed in the area until March 20, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Syrian air force struck at jihadists linked to a former al Qaeda offshoot in Irbeen, a city north-east of Damascus in Eastern Ghouta, and in al Qaboun, closer to the center of the capital, according to a media unit of Hezbollah, a Damascus ally. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military.

At least 30 air raids hit the region on Wednesday, along with dozens of artillery rounds and ground-to-ground missiles fired from government-held areas, a rebel and a resident said.

The Syrian army has been closing in on eastern suburbs of Damascus still in rebel hands, such as Qaboun, and seeking to storm neighboring towns in Eastern Ghouta. Air raids and fighting have escalated in recent days, opposition sources said.

The army and its allies are trying to force rebels to agree to truces similar to those that have led to the evacuation of thousands of opposition fighters to northern Syria.

The army has for the last 20 days concentrated its air strikes on Qaboun district, effectively ending a ceasefire that rebels in the area agreed with the Syrian army which had been in place since the end of 2013.

The army suspects tunnels from Qaboun to Eastern Ghouta have become a lifeline for people and rebels in the besieged area, the opposition's largest remaining stronghold near Damascus.

"If they take over Qaboun, the regime will be able to enforce a complete siege of Ghouta," said a fighter from Failaq al Rahman, a rebel group operating in the area called Fahed.

Thousands of civilians have fled Qaboun, a district that had drawn tens of thousands of people escaping from violence elsewhere. They have found refuge in the adjoining Damascene district of Barza, where many families have taken refuge in the streets, public gardens and mosques.

Barza has agreed a full truce with the government that has been in place since 2014. Unlike other besieged suburbs, most of civilians living in Barza can go to the capital to work and to buy food and other supplies.

Before the Syrian conflict began in 2011, more than half a million people lived in Eastern Ghouta. The sprawling mix of urban districts and farmland was once a major economic hub serving the capital, but now its population has dwindled to tens of thousands and continues to shrink. </s> Fresh fighting has broken out on several fronts in eastern Ghouta, the besieged opposition-held enclave on the outskirts of Damascus, despite a 30-day ceasefire across all of Syria ordered by the United Nations.

After days of intense debate, the UN security council had voted unanimously on Saturday for a temporary truce to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and medical assistance.

But first reports from eastern Ghouta on Sunday said forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s Russian-backed president, had launched a new air and ground offensive in a bid to “storm” rebel positions.

Witnesses told al-Jazeera regime forces were attacking opposition groups on multiple fronts, while Syrian warplanes kept up their bombardment of the battered enclave for an eighth consecutive day.

Residents and human rights observers also described renewed attacks by planes and artillery, although the bombing was less intense than on previous days, Reuters reported. Clashes were occurring along several frontlines, and rebel fighters were said to be struggling to hold their positions. The Syrian military made no comment.

About 520 civilians have died and more than 2,500 have been wounded in Ghouta since a relentless barrage of regime rocket fire, shelling and airstrikes began last Sunday. The dead include more than 120 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The new fighting appeared to deal a blow to the authority of the UN and justify scepticism expressed by Russian officials about the viability of a ceasefire imposed from outside. If confirmed, a ground offensive would suggest the regime may be attempting to finally eliminate all resistance in Ghouta before the ceasefire takes effect.

The UN resolution called for the truce to begin “without delay” but did not set a specific timeframe, following Russian objections. Nor did it say how a ceasefire would be implemented, how the injured would be evacuated, or how returning aid workers would be protected.

Bashar Ja’afari, Syria’s ambassador to the UN, said the fight against terrorism would continue regardless, noting the ceasefire resolution excluded named organisations such as Islamic State and an al-Qaida affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly the al-Nusra Front.

“Our government will reserve the right to respond as it deems appropriate in case those terrorist arms groups are targeting civilians in any part of Syria with even one single missile,” Ja’afari said.

The two main rebel factions in Ghouta – Faylaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam – said after the vote that they would implement the truce and facilitate aid access. But they also vowed to respond to any attacks.

Iran, whose Revolutionary Guards and militiamen are fighting alongside Assad’s forces, said both it and Syria would respect the UN resolution. But General Mohammad Baqeri, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, insisted the ceasefire did not apply in areas of Damascus’s suburbs “held by the terrorists”, Iran’s Tasnim new agency reported.

The 30-day ceasefire was also binding on US troops and other members of the anti-Isis coalition present in Syria, and on Israeli forces based in the occupied Golan Heights, the Syrian government said.

Previous ceasefires in the seven-year-old Syrian civil war have had limited success. A truce agreed by the regime and backed by Russia during the siege of Aleppo in 2016 collapsed on its first day. </s> A Russian-brokered deal has been reached to evacuate a Syrian rebel group from a town in Eastern Ghouta to opposition-held northwestern Syria in the first such deal in the last remaining rebel bastion near the capital, two opposition sources said on Wednesday.

Fighters from the Ahrar al Sham rebel group in control of the besieged town of Harasta had agreed to lay down their arms in return for safe passage to insurgent-controlled areas and an offer to be pardoned under local reconciliation terms with the authorities for those who want to stay, the sources said.

There was however no indication when the deal would be implemented and one source familiar with the talks said obstacles may delay it for a few days.

The Syrian army and allied forces have recaptured 70 percent of the territory that was under insurgent control in the enclave and after weeks of bombardment residents are fleeing by the thousands.

The relentless Syrian army assault backed by Russian air power that began last month has killed hundreds of people as relentless airstrikes pounded residential areas where thousands had sheltered in basements across the densely populated enclave, according to rescuers and a monitor.

The evacuation deals come after years of siege and bombardment that have been a major strategy by the Syrian army to force rebels to surrender and help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad recover all of Aleppo, Homs and other areas.

“The deal has been finalised and it could come into effect soon after a ceasefire is announced as early as Wednesday,” said one official familiar with the talks that have been going on for several days.

It would begin with an evacuation of injured civilians, he added, saying the remaining civilians in the town were “facing untold suffering.”

A local official in the opposition-run Harasta council was quoted by opposition news outlets that a deal had been reached but did not say when it was expected to be implemented.

Last year, rebels launched a major offensive on army barracks on the edge of Harasta that led to retaliatory attacks. The battles were among the fiercest in Eastern Ghouta in recent years.

Assad has vowed to end what he portrays as a terrorist threat in close proximity to his seat of power.

On Tuesday, a rocket fell on a popular residential area across the rebel-held enclave killing at least 40 people, according to medics in government controlled areas.

The Syrian authorities accused rebels of firing the rockets in revenge attacks which rebels deny.

Over 100 civilians were killed in the last two days of air strikes in Eastern Ghouta with most of the raids on Douma city, the largest population centre with more than 150,000 people still living there.

Rebels and residents say napalm and incendiary weapons were dropped on several civilian areas to force rebels to surrender.

The predicament of hundreds of rebels trapped in Harasta, one of the main towns in Eastern Ghouta, worsened after the army succeeded earlier this month in splintering Ghouta into three besieged zones, cutting off Harasta from other areas.

Last Sunday, the Syrian army had given the rebels of Harasta area an ultimatum to withdraw, state media said..

Residents and rescuers say the Russian airforce stepped up its bombing of Harasta town as talks were going on to broker the deal.

The Harasta deal will pile pressure on the two main rebel groups – Failaq al-Rahman in the southern pocket and Jaish al-Islam in the northern enclave – to also reach understandings.

They have however publicly said they reject Russia’s offer to leave the enclave.

The most likely option was however the transfer of Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam fighters to opposition-held areas in northern and southern Syria respectively, a rebel official familiar with the situation on the ground said.

The defeat in Eastern Ghouta would mark the worst setback for the anti-Assad rebellion since the opposition was driven from eastern Aleppo in late 2016 after a similar campaign of siege, bombing, ground assaults and the promise of safe passage out. </s> BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS: A new wave of bombs struck Syria's eastern Ghouta district on Friday, witnesses said, ahead of a U.N. Security Council vote to demand a 30-day ceasefire to end one of the deadliest bombing campaigns of the seven-year-old civil war.

For a sixth straight day, warplanes flown by government forces and their allies pounded the densely populated enclave east of Damascus, the last rebel bastion near the capital.

The civilian casualties and devastation there are among the worst in Syria since the government captured rebel-held parts of Aleppo in intense fighting in 2016.

At least 462 people have been killed, including at least 99 children, and many hundreds injured, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. Syrian state media reported one person was killed and 58 injured from rebel shelling of sites in Damascus, including a hospital.

In New York, the 10 elected members of the Security Council told reporters they were united in favour of the draft resolution for a cessation of hostilities in Syria and wanted it approved on Friday.

A vote scheduled for 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) was postponed until later in the day amid a flurry of last-minute negotiations on the text drafted by Sweden and Kuwait.

"We're still working on the language of some of the paragraphs, but we're almost there," Kuwait's U.N. Ambassador Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi said. "Hopefully we're so close to adopting this resolution today."

But all eyes were on Russia, and whether President Bashar al-Assad's veto-wielding ally would support the resolution, block it, or seek to water it down. Passage of the resolution could clear the way for aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Friday that Moscow wanted guarantees that rebel fighters will not shoot at residential areas in Damascus.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to support the Security Council resolution. Merkel, speaking in Brussels, said they wanted Putin to "do everything possible" to get it adopted on Friday.

Previous ceasefires have a poor record of ending fighting in Syria, and Moscow has a history of blocking Security Council measures that would harm Assad's interests.

Syria's government has often used the tactic of pushing rebels to surrender their strongholds after long sieges and military offensives.

Insurgents in eastern Ghouta have vowed not to accept such a fate, ruling out an evacuation of fighters, their families and other civilians of the kind that ended rebellion in Aleppo and Homs after heavy bombardment in earlier years.

"We refuse categorically any initiative that includes getting the residents out of their homes and moving them elsewhere," Ghouta rebel factions wrote in a letter to the Security Council on Friday.

Eastern Ghouta has 400,000 people spread over a larger area than other enclaves the government has recaptured. Late on Thursday, government aircraft dropped leaflets urging civilians to depart and hand themselves over to the Syrian army, marking corridors through which they could leave safely.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government planes and artillery hit Douma, Zamalka and other towns across the enclave in the early hours of Friday.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military.

Medical charities say more than a dozen hospitals have been hit, making it nearly impossible to treat the wounded.

A witness in Douma who asked not to be identified said by telephone that the early morning bombing was the most intense so far. Another resident, in the town of Hamouriyeh, said the assault had continued "like the other days."

"Whenever the bombing stops for some moments, the civil defence vehicles go out to the targeted places. They work to remove the debris from the road," Bilal Abu Salah said.

The Civil Defence there said its rescuers rushed to help the wounded after strikes on Hamouriyeh and Saqba. The emergency service, which operates in rebel territory, says it has pulled out hundreds of people from under rubble in recent days.

Damascus and Moscow say they only target militants. They have said their main aim is to stop rebel shelling of the capital, and have accused insurgents in Ghouta of holding residents as human shields.

Hamza Birqdar, the military spokesman for the Jaish al-Islam rebel faction, said it had thwarted nine attacks by pro-government militias trying to storm a front in the southeast of Ghouta.

The towns and farms of eastern Ghouta have been under government siege since 2013, with shortages of food, water and electricity that worsened last year.

The U.N. envoy for Syria has pleaded for a truce to prevent a "massacre." Staffan de Mistura renewed his call on Friday to stop both the "horrific heavy bombardment" of besieged eastern Ghouta and indiscriminate mortar shelling of Damascus.

The resolution to be considered by the Security Council does not cover Islamic State, al Qaeda or the Nusra Front, which Moscow and Damascus say they have targeted in eastern Ghouta. </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> BEIRUT, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations called on Tuesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Syria of at least one month as heavy air strikes were reported to have killed at least 30 people in rebel-held areas near Damascus and in the northwest.

Separately, U.N. war crimes experts said in Geneva that they were investigating multiple reports of bombs allegedly containing banned chlorine being used against civilians in the rebel-held towns of Saraqeb in the northwestern province of Idlib and Douma in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.

In a statement, Paulo Pinheiro, head of the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said an ongoing Syrian government siege of Eastern Ghouta "involve(s) the international crimes of indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate starvation of the civilian population".

Reports of air strikes hitting at least three hospitals in the past 48 hours "make a mockery of so-called "de-escalation zones", Pinheiro said, referring to a Russian-led truce deal for rebel-held territory that has failed to stop fighting there.

The latest air strikes killed 25 people in the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, a day after bombardments of the same pocket killed 30 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Air strikes in rebel-held Idlib killed six.

U.N. envoys called for a cessation of hostilities to enable humanitarian aid deliveries, and the evacuation of the sick and wounded, listing seven areas of concern including northern Syria's Kurdish-led Afrin region being targeted by a Turkish offensive.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, helped by Iran-backed militias and the Russian air force, is pursuing military campaigns against insurgents in the last major redoubts of territory held by his opponents in western Syria.

There were air strikes on towns across the Eastern Ghouta, including Douma where an entire building was brought down, a local witness said. In Idlib, where government forces and their allies are also on the offensive, at least five people were killed in the village of Tarmala, the Observatory said.

"Today there is no safe area at all. This is a key point people should know: there is no safe space," Siraj Mahmoud, the head of the Civil Defence rescue service in opposition-held rural Damascus, told Reuters.

"Right now we have people under rubble, the targeting is ongoing, warplanes on residential neighbourhoods," he said.

In a statement, the U.N. representatives noted that humanitarian needs were rising in Eastern Ghouta, where people had not received inter-agency assistance since late November.

"Meanwhile, fighting and retaliatory shelling from all parties are impacting civilians in this region and Damascus, causing scores of deaths and injuries," said their statement, released before the latest casualty tolls emerged on Tuesday.

"In Idlib, the military operations resulted in increased casualties and movement of civilians to safer areas. Some of them have been forced to move several times to escape fighting," they said, noting that two pro-government villages in Idlib also continued to be besieged by rebels.

Syria's protracted civil war, which spiralled out of street protests against Assad's rule in 2011, will soon enter its eighth year, having killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to leave the country as refugees.

Neighbouring Turkey's offensive in Afrin against the Kurdish YPG militia, which began last month, has further complicated the multi-sided conflict.

The YPG has been an important U.S. ally in the war against Islamic State militants, but Ankara sees it as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and Washington.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan ramped up his verbal assault on the U.S. role in Syria on Tuesday, saying U.S. forces should leave Manbij, a Syrian city held by YPG-allied forces with support from the U.S.-led coalition.

He said the United States was working against the interests of Turkey, Iran and maybe Russia in northern Syria.

"If the United States says they are sending 5,000 trucks and 2,000 cargo planes of weapons for the fight against Daesh (Islamic State), we don't believe this," Erdogan told members of his AK Party in parliament.

"It means you have calculations against Turkey and Iran, and maybe Russia," he said, repeating a call for U.S. troops to withdraw from Manbij.

In agreement with Iran and Russia, the Turkish military is setting up observation posts in parts of Idlib and Aleppo province. But tensions have flared as Turkish forces moved to set up one such observation position south of Aleppo.

The Turkish military said a rocket and mortar attack by militants killed one Turkish soldier while the observation post was being set up on Monday.

It was the second attack in a week on Turkish soldiers trying to establish the position near the front line between rebels and pro-Syrian government forces.

In an apparent warning to Ankara, a commander in the military alliance supporting Assad said the Syrian army had deployed new air defences and anti-aircraft missiles to front lines with rebels in the Aleppo and Idlib areas.

"They cover the air space of the Syrian north," the commander told Reuters. That would include the Afrin area where Turkish warplanes have been supporting the ground offensive by the Turkish army and allied Free Syrian Army factions.

Turkey, which supported rebel fighters trying to overthrow Assad, has worked with Assad's main international backers Russia and Iran in recent months to try to wind down the conflict in Syria. But all three countries remain deeply involved in the fighting, and stark divisions persist.

Iran urged Turkey on Monday to stop its two-week-old military offensive against the Kurdish YPG in northern Syria's Afrin region, which abuts Idlib. (Reporting Tom Perry and Lisa Barrington in Beirut, Daren Butler and Orhan Coskun in Istanbul, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; writing by Tom Perry; editing by Mark Heinrich) </s> After the council vote Saturday, Syrian warplanes backed by Russian air power launched new raids on a town in Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. (Photo: AFP)

United Nations: The UN Security Council has unanimously demanded a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, as new air strikes on the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta took the civilian death toll from seven days of bombing to more than 500.

With support from Russia, the Security Council adopted a resolution on the ceasefire to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries and medical evacuations, but the measure did not specify when the truce would go into force beyond saying it should be "without delay."

After the council vote Saturday, Syrian warplanes backed by Russian air power launched new raids on a town in Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At least 127 children are among the 519 dead in the bombing campaign that the regime launched last Sunday on the rebel enclave, just outside Damascus, the British-based monitor said.

At least 41 civilians were killed in Saturday's strikes, including eight children. Russia has denied taking part in the assault.

Quickly following up on the vote, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will speak by phone Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to push for the truce to take hold "in the coming days," the Elysee palace said in a statement.

To this end France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will also go to Moscow on Tuesday.

The UN vote was initially expected to be held Thursday, but was repeatedly delayed as diplomats were locked in tough negotiations to avoid a veto from Russia, which is militarily supporting President Bashar Al-Assad.

"Every minute the council waited on Russia, the human suffering grew," US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council after the vote, accusing Moscow of stalling.

"As they dragged out the negotiations, the bombs from Assad's fighter jets continued to fall. In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and the shelling?"

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected accusations of foot-dragging, saying that negotiations were needed to arrive at a demand for a ceasefire that was "feasible."

"What is necessary is for the demands of the Security Council to be underpinned by concrete on-the-ground agreements," he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has described Eastern Ghouta as "hell on Earth," said the ceasefire must be "immediately" implemented.

To win Russia's approval, language specifying that the ceasefire would start 72 hours after adoption was scrapped, replaced by "without delay," and the term "immediate" was dropped in reference to aid deliveries and evacuations.

In another concession to Moscow, the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with "individuals, groups, undertakings and entities" associated with the terror groups.

That would allow the Syrian government offensive to continue against Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Idlib, the last province in Syria outside the control of Damascus.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said it was now important to ensure the ceasefire turns into reality on the ground, vowing to be "extremely vigilant... in the hours to come and the days to come."

"Nothing would be worse than seeing this resolution remain a dead letter," he said.

Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions throughout the Syrian conflict to block action that targeted its ally.

In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

In Eastern Ghouta, news of the UN vote on the ceasefire was greeted with a shrug.

"I don't think this decision will be implemented. It will be respected neither by the regime nor Russia," said Abu Mazen, a resident of Douma, Eastern Ghouta's main town.

"We can't trust Russia or the regime. We are used to their betrayals," he added.

Control of Eastern Ghouta is shared between two main Islamist factions, while Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate is also present.

Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of rebel fighters and their families like the one that saw the government retake full control of Syria's second city Aleppo in December 2016.

But all three rebel groups have refused.

World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta.

The enclave is surrounded by government-controlled territory, and its 400,000 residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.

In one of the many unfolding dramas at a field hospital in Douma, a young woman amputated from the knee breastfed a 40-day-old infant who had lost his entire family in the bombings.

Food supplies have been running dry, with bread no longer available on local markets.

The cornered rebels in Eastern Ghouta have been firing back into Damascus, where six civilians were wounded Saturday, state media said.

Around 20 people have been killed in eastern districts of the capital since last Sunday, according to state media.

More than 340,000 people have been killed and millions driven from the homes in the war, which in March enters its eighth year with no diplomatic solution in sight.
A day after a Russian sponsored ceasefire with a rebel group agreed a halt of fighting in the last opposition enclave in the capital, Syrian government airplanes and artillery strike rebel-held eastern Damascus suburbs and Ghouta with barrel bombs, killing at least five civilians in the towns of Hamouriya and Zalamka with several case of suffocation from rockets filled with chlorine that were fired at the front lines of Jobar and Ain Terma.