The local council in the town of Douma east of the capital Damascus said that no fewer than 73 civilians were killed as a result of bombardment by the Assad regime and Russian forces in the month of January. The council said it recorded 27 asphyxiation cases among civilians as a result of poison chlorine gas attacks by regime forces in the same month.
According to figures the council published on Facebook on Monday, the deaths included 10 children and eight women, while 1,100 others were injured in January, including about 300 children and 200 women.
The council said that it had recorded at least 27 cases of asphyxiation among civilians as a result the regime forces’ firing of 16 rockets loaded with chlorine gas on the rebel-held district on 13 and 22 January.
The intensive bombardment on Douma destroyed over 800 homes and deprived some 14,000 students of education as schools were forced to close down, the council added.
On Thursday, the council called upon the international community to take immediate action to stop the Assad regime’s repeated use of chemical weapons in attacks on the district following the third chlorine gas attack on Douma in recent days.
Activists in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta last week said that heavy bombardment by the Assad regime and Russian forces killed nearly 361 civilians in around a month. They noted that poison gas was used in some of these attacks.
Many parts of Syria are witnessing military escalation by the Assad regime forces and their allies in violation of the ‘de-escalation zones’ agreement that was reached during the Astana talks.
The Syrian Coalition said that Russia failed to meet the obligations incurred on it, especially with regard to forcing the Assad regime to stop violations of the cease-fire agreement. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
