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Posted: 2018-02-25 22:49:33

Updated February 26, 2018 11:59:13

Just a few hours after a unanimous vote demanding a ceasefire "without delay" across Syria, a rescue worker pulled a bloodied baby from a destroyed building in the besieged rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta.

Air strikes by the Syrian Government and their allies continued, with pro-regime media claiming a new ground offensive had begun.

Saleem, an aid worker in Ghouta working with a local NGO supported by Save the Children, said the resolution only brought fleeting relief.

"It was only applied last night, now there is bombing just like any other day," he said via voice message from Ghouta.

"There are loud sounds coming from the front lines, the surveillance airplane is above our heads."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday's bombings were less intense than attacks over the past week, with nine reported killed.

Photos showed a mother and two young children among the dead.

The UN resolution stipulates that the ceasefire does not apply to a jihadist group called Nusra Front, also known as Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), a former Al Qaeda affiliate.

There is growing concern the exemption provides regime forces and their allies justification for continuing to attack Ghouta.

Aron Lund, a Syria expert and fellow at The Century Foundation, said the Nusra Front only had a small presence in Ghouta compared to the two main Free Syrian Army-affiliated rebel groups, Islam Army and Faylaq al-Rahman, who control the majority of the region.

"[HTS] is internationally designated as a terrorist faction and it is present in the area, although it is a small group compared to these two big ones," he said.

"They're not wrong saying that group is there. They are however overstating its importance for political reasons.

"The Syrian Government and the Russian Government, they lump them together … with this jihadi group HTS because that's the group that isn't covered by the ceasefires.

"Estimates on the number of Nusra or HTS fighters in Ghouta have ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand, while the number of civilians in the enclave has been put at 390,000 people by the United Nations.

"Just a very small minority of the people in the area are actually fighters.

"The Syrian Government tends to understate numbers or push them down and argue that there's no-one there and there's just terrorists and so forth. But you do have all these civilians."

Mr Lund said it appeared clear the regime was determined to retake Ghouta.

"I think the idea of getting rebels, whether they're jihadis or terrorist-listed or not jihadis and not terrorist-listed, whoever they are, getting the armed rebels and the people who will not submit to [Syrian President] Assad to leave, I think that's very much on the table.

"From the Syrian Government's end this is very clear. You have people fighting us, we're going to kill them. That's the story.

"And of course in the middle of all of that you have the civilians who tend to bear the brunt."

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, foreign-aid, syrian-arab-republic

First posted February 26, 2018 09:49:33

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