Warplanes bomb Eastern Ghouta before start of new truce

Damascus March 3 (IANS) Unidentified warplanes on Saturday bombed several parts of Eastern Ghouta the main stronghold of the opposition on the outskirts of the Syrian capital causing an unknown number of casualties shortly before the start of the fifth consecutive day of a humanitarian truce.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the warplanes carried out 40 attacks between Friday night and Saturday morning targeting Douma Harasta and Al-Shifuniya killing and wounding an unknown number of people.

The UK-based war monitor raised the number of people killed in Douma in the last 24 hours to 19 including two children and three women Efe news reported.

A new humanitarian truce came into effect on Saturday in the region at 9 am and was scheduled to last until 2 pm

Russia proposed a plan of five-hour long pauses in fighting in Eastern Ghouta after the approval in last weekend of a UN Security Council resolution calling for a month-long humanitarian ceasefire across Syria.

Since February 18 the region had been targeted by Syrian and Russian planes as well as government artillery which claimed the lives of at least 636 people including 151 children and 93 women according to the SOHR.

--IANS
soni/hs