Beirut, Jan 8 (AFP) Regime forces upped the pressure ontwo of the last rebel bastions in Syria today, pounding theEastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus and the northern provinceof Idlib.
Shelling and air strikes on Ghouta, which governmentforces have besieged for four years, killed at least 20civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The semi-rural area east of the Syrian capital is home toaround 400,000 inhabitants and is targeted almost daily byregime forces trying to flush out rebel groups.
On Monday, a woman and her three children were killed inregime strikes on Douma, which is the main town in EasternGhouta, Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-basedObservatory, said.
In the town's morgue, medics were wrapping the children'sshredded bodies in shrouds amid the shrieks of bereavedparents, an AFP correspondent reported.
Chaos engulfed the rudimentary facility as rescuers keptrushing in more wounded, some of whom died before they couldreceive life-saving treatment.
"I was at the market with my father, selling mint,parsley and onions. The next thing I knew, my foot wasbleeding and my dad had a head injury," said Ahmed Hatem, an11-year-old boy, as he sat on the floor wincing in pain.
A child and two other civilians were also killed instrikes on the small town of Madira, the Observatory said. Theviolence also left another 13 civilians dead across EasternGhouta.
The area, which had been designated as a "de-escalationzone" as part of an international deal last year to bring downviolence levels, has witnessed major bloodshed in recentweeks.
Syrian forces also managed overnight to pin back rebelswho had surrounded a regime base there.
Rebels led by the Jaish al-Islam group had in recent dayssurrounded the army's only military base in the area but thestate news agency SANA said Monday the siege had been broken.
"Units from the Syrian Arab Army have brought an end tothe encirclement of the Armoured Vehicles Base in Harasta," itsaid, adding that operations were ongoing to fully secure thebase.
According to the Observatory, the fighting in Harastasince the base was surrounded in late December left 72 regimefighters and 87 rebels dead.
Syrian and Russian aircraft also pounded targets in thenorthwestern region of Idlib, pressing a week-old operationtargeting the last province in the country to escapegovernment control.
Raids Sunday left "at least 21 dead, including eightchildren and 11 members of the same family" west of the townof Sinjar in the southeast of the province, the Observatorysaid.
"Regime and Russian strikes are continuing today onseveral parts of Idlib" province, Abdel Rahman said.
Russian-backed regime forces launched an operation on theedge of Idlib province in the last days of 2017 and haveretaken villages every day since.
After the collapse of the Islamic State jihadist group inboth Syria and Iraq late last year, President Bashar al-Assad's regime is bent on restoring its grip over the country.
Idlib province, which borders Turkey, is almost entirelycontrolled by anti-government forces that are dominated by ajihadist outfit known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) consistingmostly of fighters from a former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
Among the other groups present in the province arethousands of jihadists from Central Asian states and membersof the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority of China's Xinjiangprovince.
An explosion on Sunday in the city of Idlib at a base forthe group Ajnad al-Qawqaz, made up of men from the Caucasus wofight alongside HTS, left at least 43 dead, including 28civilians, the Observatory said.
The toll went up from 23 after rescuers found more bodiesin the wreckage and the most critically injured died of theirwounds.
It was not immediately clear whether the blast was causedby air strikes or was the result of the kind of internalclashes that sometimes break out between jihadist and rebelfactions.
After shrinking to barely a sixth of the country at theheight of the nearly seven-year-old conflict, the areas undergovernment control now cover more than 50 percent of Syrianterritory.
More than 340,000 people have been killed and millionshave been driven from their homes since Syria's conflicterupted with anti-government protests in 2011. (AFP)PMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.