UN demands 'immediate ceasefire' as Syria death toll mounts

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday's death toll was the highest it had recorded since December.

2 min read

07 February, 2018

Regime airstrikes killed nearly 70 civilians in Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday. [Getty]

The United Nations on Tuesday called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Syria of at least a month as regime airstrikes killed nearly 70 civilians in the besieged rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta.

It was the second day of an intensified regime assault on the enclave, with Syrian regime airstrikes killing 30 people in Eastern Ghouta on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman added that few rebels were among the dead because they rarely left their tunnels and had better protection from airstrikes than civilians, estimated to number around 400,000 in Ghouta.

He described Tuesday's bloodshed as the deadliest since efforts to broker a truce in Ghouta failed and the regime intensified its operations against the enclave six weeks ago.

Eastern Ghouta and Idlib, a northern province where violence also flared this week, are both so-called de-escalation zones under a deal last year intended to pave the way towards an end to the conflict.

A UN-mandated committee however said the recent escalation in violence "made a mockery" of the deal, which has failed to stem the fighting as the Syrian government continues its nationwide military reconquest.

UN officials in Syria called for fighting to stop to enable aid deliveries and the evacuation of sick and wounded, listing seven areas of concern including northern Syria's Kurdish-led Afrin region, being targeted by a Turkish offensive.

"For the last two months we have not had a single (aid-delivery) convoy. This is really outrageous," said Panos Moumtzis, assistant UN secretary general and regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria Crisis.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday's death toll was the highest it had recorded since December. The monitoring group said the campaign against Ghouta has killed at least 350 civilians, including more than 80 children.

"Minute after minute, the number of casualties rises," a rescuer from the White Helmets said in a video from Eastern Ghouta posted on the group's Facebook page. "No area at all in Ghouta is safe. ... We don't know what to say."

Paulo Pinheiro, head of the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said the regime siege of Eastern Ghouta featured "the international crimes of indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate starvation of the civilian population".

Reports said airstrikes hit at least three hospitals in the past 48 hours.

"There is a misperception that the de-escalation areas have resulted in peace and stability... if anything, these have been serious escalation areas," said Moumtzis.