Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic images of injured children.
Dust-covered survivors come stumbling from the rubble and twisted metal of another bombardment. Some clutch injured children in their arms, desperate for help. Faces are contorted with suffering or numb with shock.
Harrowing images from Eastern Ghouta, a besieged rebel-held area east of Syria’s capital, show the horror of four days of intense bombardment this week by what observers say are Russian-backed Syrian forces.
At least 229 people were killed from Monday to Thursday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. They include 58 children and 43 women, the UK-based group said.
The four days of airstrikes and shelling also have left at least 700 civilians injured, according to the SOHR.
The White Helmets volunteer group had different figures. A spokesman said 80 people died on Thursday alone in Eastern Ghouta. Since the start of the month, the group has documented 234 deaths, including 66 children and 42 women, and 581 people injured.
Eastern Ghouta, a suburban area only miles from Damascus, has been surrounded by Syrian forces for more than four years. The siege intensified in May when government forces conducted a large-scale offensive. According to the United Nations, nearly 400,000 civilians are trapped in the area, half of them thought to be children.
The regime of President Bashar al-Assad has recently ramped up its attacks against opposition forces, with US officials accusing his forces of using chemical weapons such as chlorine in recent weeks in Eastern Ghouta and Idlib, another rebel stronghold.
Eastern Ghouta, an area controlled by various Islamic rebel groups, was supposed to be a “de-escalation zone,” according to a peace agreement struck by Russia, Turkey and Iran in May.
But images of devastation emerging from the area now are reminiscent of the height of the siege of Aleppo over a year ago. They are also a graphic reminder to the world that although ISIS’ stranglehold on parts of Syria has been broken, multiple conflicts involving multiple players continue.
Syrian activists report rapidly deteriorating conditions — the worst in four years — in Eastern Ghouta, with hundreds of thousands of residents struggling from shortages of food and medical supplies.
The United Nations called for an immediate month-long ceasefire in Syria on Tuesday as the humanitarian situation worsens in conflict zones.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF warned on Thursday that dozens of children had reportedly been killed this week by “extreme and intensifying violence” in parts of Syria and called for an immediate halt to hostilities.
“In East Ghouta alone, hundreds of children are in urgent need of medical evacuation,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Four years of siege have crumbled health and other basic services critical to children’s survival and growth. Over the past few months, malnutrition has increased five-fold.
“For children who remain trapped under siege and under wanton, heavy violence across Syria, life is a living nightmare. They are struggling just to stay alive.”
UNICEF reported in late November that nearly 12% of children under the age of 5 in Eastern Ghouta were suffering acute malnutrition.
As the bombardment intensified this week, aid group Save the Children warned Thursday that tens of thousands of children were in immediate danger, with some 4,000 families trapped in underground shelters by the bombing.
Partners on the ground report that 45 schools in Eastern Ghouta have been attacked and 11 of those destroyed, Save the Children said. Much-needed aid is blocked from entering the area and civilians, including critically ill children, are barred from leaving, it said.
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also raised the alarm Thursday over the “escalating violence in Idlib, the Damascus suburbs of Eastern Ghouta, and other areas of Syria threatened by ongoing regime and Russian airstrikes.”
The United States backs the call by the United Nations for a humanitarian ceasefire, she said.
“We are yet again appalled by the recent reports of the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons and the escalation of bombings that has resulted in dozens of civilian deaths in the last 48 hours, as well as the continued abhorrent attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, which resulted in increased displacement. These attacks must end now.”