Syria war: Shelling and strikes despite Eastern Ghouta 'pause'

Fighting continued in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area of Syria during the first daily five-hour "pause" ordered by the government's ally Russia.

Activists said there were government air and artillery strikes, while Russia said rebels had shelled a "humanitarian corridor" meant to let civilians leave.

As a result, there were no UN aid deliveries or medical evacuations.

Some 393,000 people are trapped in the enclave near Damascus, which has been besieged by the government since 2013.

Medics say more than 500 people have been killed since the government intensified its bombardment nine days ago in an attempt to retake the enclave.

Meanwhile, France has urged Russia to use its influence over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to secure a 30-day truce covering the whole country.

The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution demanding a nationwide cessation of hostilities on Saturday, but it did not specify a start date.

"Russia is one of the only actors that can get the regime to implement the resolution," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

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What is happening on the ground?

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it had received reports that fighting had continued after the Russian-ordered pause began at 09:00 (07:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

"Clearly, the situation on the ground is not such that convoys can go in or medical evacuations can go out," spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

The World Health Organization said it had a list of more than 1,000 critically sick and wounded people who urgently needed to be evacuated.

The situation in the Eastern Ghouta was comparatively calm early on Tuesday. However, one civilian was killed by shellfire in the rebel-held town of Douma before the pause started, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based monitoring group also reported a number of violations in the five hours that followed, including air strikes by government planes and helicopters, and artillery shelling in the town of Jisrin that killed a child and injured seven people.

The Syrian state news agency, Sana, reported that "terrorists" had shelled the route of the humanitarian corridor leading to the government-controlled al-Wafideen checkpoint, which is north-east of Douma, and were using "human shields".
Media caption"At least in heaven there's food": The children caught up in Eastern Ghouta air strikes

Russian media said not a single civilian had left the besieged area as a result.

The accusations of firing mortars was denied by the two Islamist rebel groups that dominate the Eastern Ghouta, Jaysh al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman, while the Syrian military said it had not carried out air strikes.

Rebel factions also reiterated that jihadists from the al-Qaeda-linked alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who have a small presence in the Eastern Ghouta, had to be evacuated in exchange for a truce. The government and Russia say their bombing campaign is targeting HTS members in the enclave.
What was supposed to happen?

The Russian defence ministry announced that government forces would "cease strikes on terrorists" from 09:00 until 14:00 local time (07:00-12:00 GMT) daily from Tuesday "with the aim of immediately saving the peaceful population".
Image copyright AFP
Image caption Ambulances were seen waiting at the government-controlled al-Wafideen checkpoint

One "humanitarian corridor" to al-Wafideen had been prepared, with help from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, to allow civilians to leave and the sick and wounded to be evacuated, it said.

Residents would be informed via leaflets, text messages and videos, it added.