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Air strike toll over 300: ICRC demands access to wounded in Syria enclave

By AFP
February 22, 2018

DAMASCUS: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) asked Wednesday for access to an enclave near Syria’s capital where a regime aerial campaign has killed over 300 civilians and wounded 1,400 others this week.

“The fighting appears likely to cause much more suffering in the days and weeks ahead, and our teams need to be allowed to enter Eastern Ghouta to aid the wounded,” said Marianne Gasser, ICRC’s head of delegation in Syria. Syrian warplanes have this month intensified their strikes on the area, which lies just east of Damascus and is home to around 400,000 civilians. The enclave has been controlled by Islamist and jihadist groups since 2012 and besieged by government forces for five years.