An independent rights monitoring group said that as many as 13,000 people have been killed by Assad regime forces and their allies since the outbreak of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011.
In a new report released on Sunday, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that Assad regime forces as well as their allied Iranian militias and Russian forces killed at least 12,763 civilians in the Damascus suburb in the period between March 15, 2011 and February 24, 2018. The report indicated that the victims included 1,463 children and 1,127 women.
The Network pointed out that about 6,583 people from eastern Ghouta are still detained by the Assad regime, the majority of whom are now forcibly disappeared as nothing is known about their fate.
The siege imposed on the Damascus suburb since October 2013 has so far led to the deaths of no fewer than 427 people, including 221 children, and 72 women as the siege caused severe shortages of food and medicine, SNHR added.
The monitoring group said it had recorded at least 46 chemical weapons attacks on villages and towns of eastern Ghouta, stressing that that the primary goal of these attacks is “terrorize the civilian population.”
The Network went on to say that at least 1,121 civilians, including 281 children and 171 women, were killed in attacks by the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance on eastern Ghouta in the period between November 14, 2017 and February 24, 2018. The Assad regime forces and their allies launched a brutal bombing campaign on the area in November 14, 2017. The Network also said that it recorded around 18 attacks on health facilities in the besieged Damascus suburb in the same period. Regime forces and their allies also bombed 32 popular markets and 11 schools.
In the period between November 14, 2017 and February 24, 2018, regime forces and their allies used chemical weapons in three attacks and cluster munitions in four others on the besieged Damascus suburb, the report added. Moreover, Assad regime helicopters dropped around 124 barrel bombs on the area during the same period.
The ongoing onslaught on eastern Ghouta sparked international condemnation, while Amnesty International said that that attacks on the area by the Assad regime and its allies constituted war crimes.
As the onslaught on eastern Ghouta continues, sit-ins were held in a number of European and Western capitals in solidarity with the people trapped in the rebel-held area. Protestors held signs calling for an immediate halt to the bombings and that those responsible for war crimes are held accountable. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
