31 October 2017•Update: 31 October 2017
By Halit Suleyman
EASTERN GHOUTA, Syria
At least 13 people were killed Tuesday in a series of attacks by the Syrian regime in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, according to local civil defense sources.
Eastern Ghouta is located inside a recently established de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.
"The death toll from an attack in the town of Jisreen has risen to seven, including six children," Mahmoud Ethem, a member of Syria’s White Helmets civil defense force, told Anadolu Agency.
Earlier Tuesday, mortar shells -- believed to have been fired by regime forces -- struck a school in Jisreen, Ethem said.
He added that another six people had been killed in similar attacks in the nearby towns of Mesraba, Ayn Tarma and Arbin.
An opposition stronghold on the outskirts of Damascus, Eastern Ghouta has remained under siege by Syrian regime forces since late 2012.
In May, Russia, Turkey and Iran signed a deal in Kazakh capital Astana establishing a network of de-escalation zones in Syria with a view to shoring up a cease-fire hammered out late last year.
During the talks in Astana, Eastern Ghouta was designated within one such de-escalation zone.
Russia and Iran both support Syria’s Assad regime, while Turkey supports the country’s armed opposition.
Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN officials.
