Assad forces kill more civilians in Eastern Ghouta

By Adham Kako

EASTERN GHOUTA, Syria

Assad forces killed six civilians, including two children in Thursday’s air-and-land attacks targeting opposition-held Eastern Ghouta, according to a Syrian civil defense group.

Some residential areas in Duma, Eastern Ghouta, were hit by regime shells; among the six civilians dead were two children.

Home to some 400,000 civilian residents, Eastern Ghouta has remained under a crippling regime siege for the last five years.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011, when the regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.