Reported death toll at least 462 since Sunday


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UPDATE 2230 GMT: The UN Security Council has unanimously passed a resolution for a 30-day ceasefire in East Ghouta.

Russia reluctantly acceded to the text, but Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said it was unlikely to be viable: “What is necessary is for the demands of the Security Council to be underpinned by concrete on the ground agreements.”

To get Russian acceptance, Council members watered down the 72-hour limit for the truce to begin, instead saying it should start “without delay” and all parties should “engage immediately to ensure full and comprehensive implementation.”


UPDATE 1215 GMT: Muhammad Najem, 15, whose tweets from East Ghouta in recent months have highlighted endurance under siege and attacks, posts video of his home under barrel bombing:


With Russia blocking any significant action for a 30-day ceasefire in besieged and attacked East Ghouta, the UN Security Council has delayed a vote on a resolution until noon (1700 GMT) on Saturday.

The text, drafted by Sweden and Kuwait, seeks aid to the area near Syria’s capital Damascus, where almost 500 people have been slain by pro-Assad attacks since Sunday.

But Russia has been refusing to support any measure which does not include an effective capitulation by rebels in the territory held by the opposition since 2012.

A proposal for the ceasefire to start 72 hours after the resolution’s adoption has been diluted because of the Russian objections. It now has no set timetable but says the cessation of hostilities should begin “without delay”.

The resolution also no longer demands the provision of assistance, blocked by the Assad regime, but calls for it to occur.

“We’re not going to give up….I hope that we will adopt something forceful, meaningful, impactful tomorrow,” Olof Skoog, Sweden’s UN ambassador, told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said any resolution must have guarantees that rebels will not fire on residential areas in Damascus.

Local sources say at least 462 people, including at least 99 children, have been killed in the past six days.

A father finds his child buried under the rubble of their home:

Pro-Assad forces have been gathering this month for an invasion of East Ghouta, trying to force the complete surrender of the area with more than 350,000 people. Attacks in early February killed at least 230 people and wounded more than 800.

Even before the surge, a five-year siege had been tightened, with scores dying from lack of food and medicine.

Regime aircraft have been dropping leaflets calling on civilians to hand themselves over to pro-Assad forces, but rebel factions rejected surrender and forced removal in a letter to the Security Council: “We refuse categorically any initiative that includes getting the residents out of their homes and moving them elsewhere.”

A “double-tap” strike, targeting rescuers and civilians responding to an initial attack:

Firing of incendiary munitions on East Ghouta on Friday night:

The Assad regime’s media continue to ignore East Ghouta. Instead, they said on Friday that one person was killed and 58 injured in rebel shelling of sites in Damascus, including a hospital.

Pro-opposition activists and journalists, citing eyewitnesses, say at least some of the attacks in the capital were carried out by regime forces:

Journalist Among Those Killed

Abdul Rahman Ismael Yassin, a reporter for the pro-opposition Hamouriya Media Office, has died from injuries sustained in an airstrike on Tuesday, according to his employer and the Syrian Journalists Association.

Yassin was hit by shrapnel from a barrel bomb en route to a hospital which had been damaged by pro-Assad attacks. He was seriously injured in the head and stomach, and could not be taken to hospital immediately because of ongoing shelling. By the time Yassin reached the Hamouriya hospital, doctors were unable to revive him.

“Abdul Rahman Ismael Yassin only wanted to ensure that the world understood the suffering of the people of eastern Ghouta. For that journalistic pursuit, he paid the ultimate price,” said Sharif Mansour of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “We call on the Syrian government to cease hostilities in eastern Ghouta and guarantee the safety of all civilians, including journalists.”

Yassin worked as a journalist since the start of the Syrian uprising in March 2011, focusing on conflict around his hometown of Hamouriya

The Syrian Journalists’ Association says at least 75 journalists and media professionals are currently under threat in East Ghouta.


Top Paramilitary Official: 218 Russians Killed by US Airstrikes on February 8

A top official in Russia’s “private military companies” says 218 Russian fighters were killed by US airstrikes on February 8, in a failed attack by pro-Assad forces on the American-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria. The fighters were part of the Wagner Group, which has pursued Russian operations on the ground in the country since 2013.

See Syria Daily, Feb 16: Reports — 300 Russian Fighters Killed/Wounded by US Airstrikes

The official said that, as injured have been returned to Russia for treatment, the bodies of Wagner Group fighters are still in Syria: “There are 150 people in refrigerators on the Wagner base. Their state? ‘Minced meat’ is how they described them to me.”

He said families have not been told about what happened in the disastrous attack near a gas plant in Deir ez-Zor Province: “Nothing will happen before the Presidential election on March 18. We all know why.”