Government forces seized territory inside Syria's rebel enclave Eastern Ghouta Saturday, intensifying fighting as tens of thousands of civilians in the plagued enclave near Damascus awaited urgently needed aid.
The Government fighters are trying to advance inside Eastern Ghouta to cut off the main town of Douma and its surroundings in the north of the enclave, as well as isolate the southeastern area of Al-Marj, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Jaish al-Islam, a main opposition group in the region, accused regime forces of carrying out a "scorched earth policy" as they progressed into the enclave.
On another front in Syria's seven-year civil war, Turkish air strikes killed 36 pro-regime fighters in a Kurdish enclave near Turkey's border.
Syria's war has caused the death of more than 340,000 people and spiralled into a complex conflict involving world powers since it started in 2011, with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Russia-backed regime forces have since February 18 killed more than 640 civilians including over 150 children in a ferocious bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, one of the armed opposition's last strongholds in the country.
Following a deadly wave of air strikes and shelling, fighting on the ground has intensified in recent days and the regime now "controls 10 percent of the besieged Eastern Ghouta region", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late Saturday.
Regime forces have advanced steadily since Thursday, the Britain-based monitor said earlier, recapturing four areas in the east and southeast of the enclave as well as two air bases.
"Regime forces and their allies have intensified their attacks on rebel positions in the past 48 hours," Abdel Rahman said.
The progress has been rapid through mainly agricultural land, he added.
According to Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister, Ayman Soussan, the terrorists will soon taste defeat in Ghouta.
Eastern Ghouta's 400,000 residents have lived under siege since 2013, facing stern food and medicine shortages even before the latest offensive.
The fighting on the ground comes after Russia on Tuesday, began a daily five-hour "humanitarian pause" in the enclave, a move that falls far short of the 30-day truce insisted by the UN Security Council.
The ferocity of the bombardment initially lessened but it has continued to claim lives, also trucks loaded with desperately needed aid remain unable to enter the enclave.
Thousands of civilians are surviving on meagre stocks and medical staff are struggling to treat casualties with insufficient medical supplies.
According to a statement from the Elysee Palace, French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a telephone conversation late Saturday, expressed "grave concern" about the humanitarian situation in the area.
"The UN convoys must immediately deliver medical assistance and food aid to the besieged population," Macron said.
The UN Human Rights Council postponed voting Friday on a British resolution condemning the crisis in Eastern Ghouta after member states failed to agree on a final text.
According to the Observatory, Moscow has offered safe passage to non-combatants wishing to depart the enclave during the break, but no Syrian civilians have left since Tuesday.
