More than 400 killed in six days: Strikes pound Syria enclave as world fumbles for response

DOUMA: Syrian regime air strikes and artillery fire hit the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta for a sixth straight day Friday as the world struggled to reach a deal to stop the carnage.

More than 400 civilians have been killed in one of the seven-year Syrian conflict’s bloodiest episodes and rescuers were finding more bodies buried in the rubble.France and Germany’s leaders urged Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose airforce is also striking Eastern Ghouta, to back a 30-day truce up for a UN Security Council vote at 1600 GMT Friday.

Russia called for “guarantees” that the ceasefire would be respected by rebel fighters.Few of the enclave’s nearly 400,000 residents — mostly living in a scattering of towns across the semi-rural area east of the capital — ventured out on Friday.

Exhausted and famished families cowered in cramped and damp basements, exchanging information on the latest casualties of the government’s blitz.The new strikes on Friday killed at least 39 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“The air strikes and the artillery fire are continuing on several towns in Eastern Ghouta,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based monitoring group, told AFP. More than 2,000 people have been wounded.

Diplomats at the United Nations failed to clinch Russian approval late Thursday on a resolution calling for a 30-day truce to allow for humanitarian aid and medical evacuations.They then announced that a vote would take place on Friday but did not make clear whether they had rallied Moscow to a new draft. This time German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote to Putin to ask him to back the ceasefire.