No Civilian Evacuations from Eastern Ghouta as Government Launches Ground Push
The Syrian government launched a ground offensive on the eastern edge of a besieged opposition enclave near the capital on Wednesday, despite a Russian-ordered truce, Reuters reported.
Government forces made limited advances in the Hawsh al-Dawahra district in the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, where they clashed with rebels who fought to repel the attempted incursion.
The continued fighting has undermined a daily five-hour local cease-fire ordered by Russia, which is meant to facilitate the delivery of aid and the evacuation of civilians, who have been trapped in the besieged suburbs since Damascus stepped up attacks on the region last month.
But the Associated Press said that no civilians were seen exiting Eastern Ghouta on Wednesday and that no aid has entered the opposition holdout. Moscow and Damascus accuse the rebels of preventing the movement of civilians and aid across a humanitarian corridor established by the government, but the rebels deny the charges.
Meanwhile, about 40 trucks loaded with aid have been ready to ferry relief supplies to 10 besieged areas in Eastern Ghouta since Saturday, Mark Lowcock, the U.N. under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse. But he noted that the humanitarian convoys had not been been granted access or had authorization by the Syrian government to enter the besieged enclave.
There are roughly 400,000 people trapped in the suburbs east of the capital. Escalated attacks on the region have killed more than 500 people since February 18. On Saturday the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria, but the agreement has yet to take hold on the ground.
Amnesty Warns Against ‘Indiscriminate’ Attacks on Afrin
Amnesty International on Wednesday accused Turkish troops and, to a lesser extent, Kurdish fighters, of carrying out “indiscriminate attacks” in the northern Aleppo districts of Afrin and Azaz.
The attacks on the Kurdish enclave of Afrin and the rebel-held town of Azaz have killed scores of civilians and are putting the lives of hundreds more at risk, said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East research director.
Turkish troops and allied rebels have been battling the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin since they launched Operation Olive Branch in January. Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has carried out a number of attacks inside Turkey in recent years.
Citing the Kurdish Red Crescent, Amnesty said Turkish military attacks on Afrin have so far killed at least 93 civilians and injured 313 more people, including 51 children. Kurdish YPG shelling in Azaz, which is held by Turkey-backed rebels, has allegedly killed four people including a 9-year-old girl, Amnesty said.
Turkey has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in Syria.
The Amnesty report comes days after Turkey dispatched police and paramilitary special forces to Afrin ahead of what Ankara has described as a “new battle” in the Kurdish enclave.
France and the U.S. called on Turkey this week to halt attacks on Afrin in line with a resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council on Saturday demanding a 30-day cease-fire in Syria. However, Turkey on Wednesday said that the cease-fire deal does not apply to its five-week-long offensive against YPG forces, according to Reuters.
U.S.: Russia Violated Its Commitment to Stopping Chemical Weapons Attacks
A senior U.S. disarmament official said Russia was violating its duty to guarantee the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile and prevent the Syrian government from using them, the Guardian reported.
“Russia is on the wrong side of history with regard to chemical weapons use in Syria,” Robert Wood, the U.S. permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament, told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.
His comments came after a leaked U.N. report found North Korea responsible for supplying Syria with equipment that could be used to develop chemical weapons.
It also comes only days after rescue workers and medics in Eastern Ghouta accused the Syrian government of targeting the besieged enclave with chlorine gas.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has opened an investigation into the reported attack on the rebel enclave to determine whether chemical weapons were used.
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