Accurate estimates of the death toll from these latest attacks are hard to come by, but many accounts suggest that as many as 300 civilians, including children, have been killed in the past 48 hours in the region of eastern Ghouta, in suburbs outside the country’s capital. The Assad regime’s forces have carried out a near-incessant bombardment of the region over the past 48 hours.
NBC News described it this way: “Death has a soundtrack in Eastern Ghouta: The growing rumble of a jet ripping through the sky, punctuated by a low but loud thud. Then come screams and sirens.” A woman who who was with her two children in one of the towns hit told Al Jazeera: “Warplanes have not stopped soaring over the city. When the shelling temporarily stops, they start firing missiles at us.”
Eastern Ghouta is in one of four de-escalation zones set up last year as a way to reduce the violence in Syria. But that won’t be evident to the people who live there. In violation of internationally agreed upon rules of war, forces loyal to Assad have besieged the area, which is home to about 400,000 civilians, and intensified their attacks in 2018. Residents have little access to medical care; some of them have taken shelter underground. Video from the area shows devastation. The SOHR says the number of fatalities in this attack is the highest in eastern Ghouta in any 36 hours of bombing since 2015.
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