Over 600 Syrians Killed, Assad Vows to Continue Military Operation

A battered street Eastern Ghouta, Syria.

(Photo: AP Newsroom)

Video Editor: Mohd Ibrahim

For thousands in Syria, huddling in basements and underground shelters across the sprawling Eastern Ghouta region has become a part of their life. Civilians are hiding from the horror raining down from Syrian army jets that almost never leave the skies.

In these basements and tunnels, dozens or sometimes even hundreds spend hours and often days on end in a single shelter, in constant fear that the blasts outside could crush their makeshift homes.

The UN human rights chief condemned the violence and killings in the embattled Eastern Ghouta region and across Syria likely amounting to war crimes and called it a potential crimes against humanity.

While, International communities criticise Bashar Al-Assad’s government for using chemical weapons on Syrians, he dismisses all such allegations. Al-Assad rather thinks that the Western countries are a ‘Dictionary of lies’.

Eastern Ghouta, home to some 400,000 people, has been under a crippling siege and daily bombardment for months. More than 600 civilians in the region have been killed over a span two weeks.

Syrian Civil Defense group carrying a boy who was wounded during airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces in Ghouta

Speaking to a small group of reporters in Damascus, Assad said the five-hour daily "humanitarian pause" in eastern Ghouta would continue, to allow for any civilians wishing to leave the area to do so.

Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed Sunday to continue with a military offensive in a rebel-held region near the capital, as troops and allied militias captured a number of villages and towns in the largest advance since a wide-scale operation began last month.

When we talk about the decision (referring to the truce), we say that there are positives that allow to achieve the humanitarian goal and at the same time allow to achieve the goal of striking the terrorists. We should continue with the operation in parallel with opening the way to the civilians to exit to the government-controlled areas.

Bashar Al-Assad, President, Syria 

The UN and other human rights monitors estimate that hundreds of people have been killed since a government-led assault began on eastern Ghouta on 18 February.

(With inputs from AP)

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