Cease-fire in Syria’s E. Ghouta ‘over’, observers say

By Mohamed Misto

ANKARA/EASTERN GHOUTA (AA) - A cease-fire in Syria's Eastern Ghouta district, a suburb of Damascus, is “effectively over” following repeated attacks by the Assad regime, according to Anadolu Agency correspondents based in the area.

For the last five years, Eastern Ghouta has remained under a crippling regime siege.

The district was recently designated a “de-escalation zone” -- in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden -- following an agreement between Russia and Iran (which support the regime) and Turkey (which supports Syria’s armed opposition).

Despite this designation, however, at least 70 people have reportedly been killed within the last three weeks alone amid stepped-up attacks by the Assad regime.

In response to the attacks, which remain ongoing, armed opposition groups in Eastern Ghouta have repeatedly clashed with regime forces.

Since Friday morning, Eastern Ghouta’s Duma and Arbin neighborhoods -- along with the towns of Madyara, Hamuriyyah and Zamalka -- have been repeatedly targeted by regime airstrikes and artillery barrages.

In a Friday statement, Duma’s main civil-defense center said seven civilians, including five children, had been killed in the neighborhood on Friday alone.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.