BEIRUT: Regime and Russian air strikes on a rebel-held enclave near the Syrian capital killed at least 17 civilians on Saturday, a war monitor said.
Eastern Ghouta, one of the last remaining opposition strongholds in the country, is the target of near-daily air raids.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday’s deadliest strikes had hit the Hammuriyeh district, killing 12 civilians including two children.
An AFP reporter in Hammuriyeh saw residential buildings with their facades blown open, collapsing into streets strewn with rubble.
Residents including members of the White Helmets rescue group rushed to rescue the wounded.
Running past a burning car, one man held a crying boy in his arms, while another carried the apparently lifeless body of a child through the streets.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said Syrian and Russian aircraft had “continued their intense bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, targeting several residential areas.”
He said those killed also included two people in the district of Madira and three in Erbin, adding that 35 people were also wounded in the three areas.
The Britain-based monitor relies on a network of sources inside Syria and says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.
At the start of the week, a coalition of rebels and jihadists including a former Al-Qaeda affiliate surrounded the only regime base in Eastern Ghouta, which lies east of Damascus and has been under a crippling regime siege since 2013.
The blockade has caused serious food and medicine shortages for the enclave’s estimated 400,000 inhabitants.
More than 340,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions displaced since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
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Air strikes kill at least 17 civilians in Syria rebel enclave: monitor
Air strikes kill at least 17 civilians in Syria rebel enclave: monitor
Israel expands Lebanon strikes, killing 11
- Israel expanded its air strikes in Lebanon on Wednesday, targeting the area around the presidential palace near Beirut and other areas south of the capital
BEIRUT: Israel expanded its air strikes in Lebanon on Wednesday, targeting the area around the presidential palace near Beirut and other areas south of the capital as well as strongholds of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, killing at least 11 people.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes over the weekend.
An air strike hit a hotel in Hazmieh on Wednesday, the first reported Israeli attack on the predominantly Christian area in Beirut’s suburbs near the presidential palace and several embassies.
Some rooms were gutted in the strike, while wounded people received treatment in the lobby, AFP images showed.
People also fled through debris carrying suitcases past the Comfort Hotel’s sign, which had fallen broken to the ground. It was not possible to determine who was targeted in the attack.
The southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, were targeted again on Wednesday morning, following an evacuation order from Israel’s military.
Smoke rose over the densely populated area, where some residents fled when the violence erupted.
In Aramoun and Saadiyat south of Beirut — two towns outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds — the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded eight others. It cautioned that this was a “preliminary toll.”
AFP footage from Aramoun showed damaged cars and rescue workers carrying a wounded person on a stretcher.
Strikes also targeted a four-story building in the city of Baalbek, in Lebanon’s east far from the border where Hezbollah also has a strong presence.
Five people were killed, 15 were wounded and three remain missing, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
One side of the building collapsed. AFP correspondents saw rescue workers searching through the rubble for survivors.
- Ground incursion -
The Israeli military called on people to “immediately” leave 13 towns and villages in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning ahead of strikes against Hezbollah, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
A similar evacuation warning had earlier been issued for 16 other southern towns and villages.
Hezbollah carried out a series of strikes against Israel on Tuesday, claiming to have targeted sites including the northern Haifa naval base in retaliation for Israeli strikes in southern Beirut.
Since Monday, Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 people and wounded 335 in Lebanon, the health ministry said before the overnight strikes.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said three paramedics were killed and six injured “while recovering people injured by explosions” in Lebanon’s southern Tyre district.
“Warring parties must abide by international humanitarian law and protect health workers, facilities and patients,” he said on X.
Lebanese authorities on Monday recorded the displacement of more than 58,000 people from areas targeted by strikes.
The Israeli military has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until the Lebanese group disarms.
Israeli forces also launched a ground incursion on Tuesday, advancing into a border area in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese army source told AFP.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes over the weekend.
An air strike hit a hotel in Hazmieh on Wednesday, the first reported Israeli attack on the predominantly Christian area in Beirut’s suburbs near the presidential palace and several embassies.
Some rooms were gutted in the strike, while wounded people received treatment in the lobby, AFP images showed.
People also fled through debris carrying suitcases past the Comfort Hotel’s sign, which had fallen broken to the ground. It was not possible to determine who was targeted in the attack.
The southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, were targeted again on Wednesday morning, following an evacuation order from Israel’s military.
Smoke rose over the densely populated area, where some residents fled when the violence erupted.
In Aramoun and Saadiyat south of Beirut — two towns outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds — the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded eight others. It cautioned that this was a “preliminary toll.”
AFP footage from Aramoun showed damaged cars and rescue workers carrying a wounded person on a stretcher.
Strikes also targeted a four-story building in the city of Baalbek, in Lebanon’s east far from the border where Hezbollah also has a strong presence.
Five people were killed, 15 were wounded and three remain missing, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
One side of the building collapsed. AFP correspondents saw rescue workers searching through the rubble for survivors.
- Ground incursion -
The Israeli military called on people to “immediately” leave 13 towns and villages in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning ahead of strikes against Hezbollah, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
A similar evacuation warning had earlier been issued for 16 other southern towns and villages.
Hezbollah carried out a series of strikes against Israel on Tuesday, claiming to have targeted sites including the northern Haifa naval base in retaliation for Israeli strikes in southern Beirut.
Since Monday, Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 people and wounded 335 in Lebanon, the health ministry said before the overnight strikes.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said three paramedics were killed and six injured “while recovering people injured by explosions” in Lebanon’s southern Tyre district.
“Warring parties must abide by international humanitarian law and protect health workers, facilities and patients,” he said on X.
Lebanese authorities on Monday recorded the displacement of more than 58,000 people from areas targeted by strikes.
The Israeli military has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until the Lebanese group disarms.
Israeli forces also launched a ground incursion on Tuesday, advancing into a border area in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese army source told AFP.
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