Schools in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta continue to be closed down because of the continued bombing campaign by the Assad regime and Russia’s air forces on the rebel-held area.
Directorate of Education in eastern Ghouta announced it was suspending schools for fear of the relentless bombardment.
The Assad regime and Russian airstrikes in November hit five schools in the towns of Kafar Batna, Harasta, Saqba, Hammouriya, and Jisreen, killing eight students and wounding dozens more.
Since early November, the eastern Ghouta area has been subjected to intensified aerial bombardment that has killed and injured hundreds of civilians as well as caused widespread destruction to residential buildings and infrastructure.
In a statement issued in November, civil and revolutionary leaders in rural Damascus called on the United Nations to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the Assad regime’s attacks on schools in the area. They urged the UN to assume its legal and moral responsibilities following the death of students in airstrikes on eastern Ghouta.
Eastern Ghouta has been subjected to four-year-long siege by the Assad regime and its allied Iranian militias, causing severe shortages of food and medical supplies. In recent weeks, regime forces have stepped up bombardment on the area even though it is covered by the ‘de-escalation zones’ agreement reached in the Kazakh capital Astana in September. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
