Air strikes hit Syria’s Ghouta minutes after UN vote on ceasefire

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes struck eastern Ghouta on Saturday evening, minutes after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire in Syria.

The jets hit the town of Shifouniyeh in the rebel enclave, said the Britain-based monitoring group and two residents of the besieged suburbs near Damascus.

Eastern Ghouta. (Reuters)

A surge of air strikes and shelling by the Syrian government and its allies has pounded eastern Ghouta since Sunday night, in one of the fiercest air-assaults of the seven-year war, residents, rescuers and the monitor say.

The UN Security Council on Saturday demanded a 30-day truce across Syria as rescuers in the country’s eastern Ghouta region said bombing would not let up long enough for them to count bodies during one of the bloodiest air assaults of the seven-year war.

Eastern Ghouta. (Reuters)

The two major rebel factions in Syria’s eastern Ghouta welcomed the resolution.

In separate statements, Jaish al-Islam and Failaq al-Rahman pledged to protect aid convoys that come into the besieged rebel enclave near Damascus. The insurgents said they would commit to a truce, but would respond to any violation by the Syrian government and its allies.