Situation in Syria worse since call for ceasefire: UN

The current situation in Syria seems to have gotten worse since the United Nations decided to conduct a month-long humanitarian ceasefire.

The UN had called for an immediate ceasefire in Syria on Tuesday as heavy air strikes were reported to have killed scores of people in the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus.

The UN resident and humanitarian coordinator Ali al-Za'tari said on Monday that Syria has witnessed "some of the worst fighting of the entire conflict" since the decision.

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There are reports of "hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries, massive displacement and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities," Za'tari said in an emailed statement.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is, with the support of Iranian-backed militias and the Russian air force, pursuing military offensives against insurgents in his opponents’ last major strongholds in the west of the country.

Separately, UN war crimes experts said they were investigating several reports of bombs allegedly containing chlorine gas being used against civilians in the rebel-held towns of Saraqeb in the northwestern province of Idlib and Douma in the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday’s bombardment of Eastern Ghouta had killed 63 people. A local official, Khalil Aybour, put the toll at 53.

On Monday, air strikes killed 30 people in Eastern Ghouta, the Observatory said.

Insurgent shelling of government-held Damascus killed three people, the Observatory, and Syrian state media reported.

Air strikes also killed at least six people in rebel-held Idlib including five in Tarmala village, the Observatory said.

UN officials in Syria called for fighting to stop to enable aid deliveries and the evacuation of sick and wounded, listing seven areas of concern including northern Syria’s Kurdish-led Afrin region, being targeted by a Turkish offensive.

(With input from Reuters)