Feb 7, 2018 - World

21 children among those killed in Syrian government strikes

Haley Britzky

A Syrian man carries an injured child in a make-shift hospital following regime air strikes on the rebel-held besieged town of Douma in the eastern Ghouta region. — A Syrian man carries an injured child following air strikes on the besieged town of Douma in the eastern Ghouta region. Photo: Hamza Al-Ajweh / AFP / Getty Images

More than 130 Syrians have been killed by Assad regime airstrikes since Monday, the BBC reports, with strikes in Eastern Ghouta killing 80 people, including 21 children, on Tuesday alone.

The backdrop: U.N. senior advisor Jan Egelan has called Eastern Ghouta "the epicenter of suffering" in Syria. Al Jazeera notes that the area "is one of the last remaining opposition strongholds," making it a major target for Syrian and Russian forces.

The last time U.N. humanitarian aid was allowed into the region was November, per Al Jazeera, and at least 470,000 people have died as a result of the fighting.
Siraj Mahmoud, the head of the Civil Defence rescue service in Damascus, told Reuters: "Today there is no safe area at all. This is a key point people should know: there is no safe space."

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21 children among those killed in Syrian government strikes

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