Fresh strikes on Syria’s Ghouta enclave kill 10: Monitor

BEIRUT – Agence France-Presse

Fresh bombardment by the Syrian regime on Feb. 26 killed at least 10 civilians in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, including nine members of a same family, a monitor said.

Air strikes destroyed a building in Douma, the main town in the Eastern

Ghouta area east of Damascus, and buried alive an entire family, the Syrian Observatory for Human  Rights said.

“Nine civilians from a same family were killed in regime air strikes in Douma, after midnight,” the head of the Britain-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.

“Some of the bodies are still stuck in the rubble,” he said.

An AFP correspondent in Douma said the bombardment had been very heavy overnight and impeded rescuers in their work.

The Observatory said another civilian was killed by regime rocket fire in Harasta, an area of Eastern Ghouta which is directly adjacent to the capital’s eastern neighbourhoods.

More than 500 civilians have been killed in regime and Russian bombardment on the enclave, which is controlled by Islamist and jihadist fighters, since February 18, according to the Observatory.

Among the dead are more than 130 children.