Syrians injured and in “tragic situation”; UN aid stopped halfway

The UN has been providing the Syrians with whatever help it can. But the organization’s latest mission had been stopped.

An international convoy cut short its mission to Syria’s rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Monday after delivering desperately needed aid as the regime pounded the region, killing dozens as it seized more ground.

At least 68 civilians were killed Monday, a monitor said, while the United Nations reported dozens of trucks carrying aid had reached the main town of Douma.

The government removed medical supplies from the first aid convoy to arrive since the start two weeks ago of a bloody Russian-backed assault that has sparked outrage but little action from the West.

The 46 aid trucks arrived after fresh air strikes hit the shrinking rebel-held zone and regime troops rapidly advanced, leaving them in control of 40% of the region.

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An international press reporter in Douma said warplanes were flying overhead and explosions from could be heard even as the aid was being unloaded.

The UN’s refugee agency UNHCR said the aid convoy had been in the town of Douma for nearly nine hours.

But on Monday evening it cut short its mission and left the enclave, the UN said.

“We delivered as much as we could amidst shelling,” UNHCR’s Syria representative Sajjad Malik tweeted. “Civilians are caught in a tragic situation.”

Linda Tom, spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian coordination office OCHA in Syria, told AFP fighting and air strikes had continued during the convoy’s deployment, “including on Douma city while the convoy was offloading”.

More than two weeks of air strikes, artillery and rocket fire on the last major rebel-held enclave near Damascus have killed hundreds and devastated towns.

At least 19 people were killed in the town of Hammuriyeh, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Another 49 died elsewhere in the enclave, it added, bringing to around 760 the number of civilians killed since the assault began, including at least 170 children.

At least 15 civilians were killed and 70 wounded in strikes “believed to be Russian” on the town of Kafr Batna, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.