Arbin, Syria”•Airstrikes hit Syria’s Eastern Ghouta for a third straight day on Tuesday, bringing the civilian death toll to nearly 200 as the UN warned the situation in the rebel enclave was spinning “out of control.”
Airstrikes and rocket and artillery fire have battered the rebel-held enclave since Sunday in apparent preparation for a government ground assault on the besieged region.
At least 194 civilians have been killed, among them 57 children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Monday alone, 127 civilians, including 39 children, were killed in the bombardment”•the single bloodiest day for Eastern Ghouta in four years.
Fresh air strikes on Tuesday morning killed at least 50 civilians, including 13 children, the Britain-based war monitor said.
Held by rebels since 2012, Eastern Ghouta is the last opposition pocket around Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad is keen to retake it with an apparently imminent ground assault.
The UN children’s fund expressed “outrage” over the killings of children in Syria by issuing a blank statement, adding in a footnote that “no words will do [them] justice.”
“No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones,” said Geert Cappelaere, Unicef regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.