UGH: Syria enters ‘new phase of horror’ as Assad pushes on with eastern Ghouta offensive.

Claims from President Bashar al Assad that his forces are doing all it can to protect civilians in the two-week-old offensive on eastern Ghouta are “frankly ridiculous”, human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said on Wednesday.

The Russian-supported “indiscriminate, brutal attacks“ have killed at least 800 people and led most of the area’s estimated 400,000 population to seek shelter in basements from intense shelling and air strikes despite demands from the UN for a ceasefire on 24 February.

The fate of Eastern Ghouta reflects the ‘siege, starve and surrender’ Assad playbook in several other urban battles in Syria’s complex conflict.

There were reports that the Assad regime used chlorine gas on Ghouta, but those reports may be false.