Airstrikes in Syrian rebel enclave kill at least 17 civilians, says monitor

Syrian regime and Russian airstrikes in a rebel-held enclave near Damascus have killed at least 17 civilians, a war monitor has said.

Eastern Ghouta, one of the last remaining opposition strongholds in the country, is the target of near-daily air raids.

“Syrian and Russian aircraft on Saturday continued their intense bombardment of eastern Ghouta, targeting several residential areas,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.

The deadliest strikes hit the Hammuriyeh district, leaving 12 civilians dead including two children, he said.

Two people were killed in the town of Madira and three in Arbin,Rahman added, saying 35 people had been wounded in the three areas.

The UK-based monitor relies on a network of sources inside Syria and determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

At the start of the week a coalition of rebels and jihadists, including a former al-Qaida affiliate, surrounded the only regime base in eastern Ghouta, which lies east of the Syrian capital and has been under a crippling regime siege since 2013.

The blockade has caused serious food and medicine shortages for the enclave’s estimated 400,000 inhabitants.

More than 340,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions displaced since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.