Siege of Eastern Ghouta

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Siege of Eastern Ghouta
Part of the Syrian Civil War
Rif Damashq.svg
Frontlines in Rif Dimashq in early March 2018
Syrian Government control

Opposition control
Date 7 April 2013[1] �1 April 2018
(4 years, 11 months, 3 weeks and 4 days)
Location Eastern Ghouta, Syria
Result Ongoing
Belligerents
Jaysh al-Islam[1]
Free Syrian Army
Al-Rahman Legion[1]
Ahrar al-Sham[1]
Tahrir al-Sham[1]

Jaysh al-Ummah (2014�15)

Syrian Arab Republic

Syrian Armed Forces

Iran
Russia (since 2015)
Allied militias:
Hezbollah
LAAG
Emblem of Liwa Al-Quds.svg Liwa al-Quds[2]
Emblem of the Palestine Liberation Army.svg Palestine Liberation Army[3]
PFLP-GC[4]
Arab Nationalist Guard[3]
Liwa Fatemiyoun[5]
SSNP[6]
Free Palestine Movement[7]
Commanders and leaders
Zahran Alloush �

Essam al-Buwaydhani
Abdul al-Nasr Shamir Syria Colonel Ghayath Dalla
Syria Suheil al-Hassan
Units involved
Jaysh al-Islam

Military Council of Damascus and its Suburbs

Al-Rahman Corps calligraphy.jpg Al-Rahman Legion

Al-Bara Brigade
Glory Brigades
Abu Musa al-Shari Brigade
Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union (Eastern Ghouta branch)
Al-Habib al-Mustafa Brigade
101st Battalion
Ahrar al-Sham

Fajr al-Umma Brigade (independent group prior to 2017)

 Syrian Army

Syrian Republican Guard Symbol.svg Republican Guard[8]

Tiger Forces[8]
SYR-commandos-ins.svg 14th Special Forces Division[8]
1st Corps
7th Mechanized Division[9]
9th Armoured Division[8]
2nd Corps
Syrian 4th Armoured Division SSI.svg 4th Armoured Division[8]
42nd Armored Brigade[10]
10th Mechanized Division[11]
62nd Mechanized Brigade[11]
National Defence Forces
Syrian Air Force
Russian Armed Forces

Aerospace Forces[12]
Strength
10,000 fighters (in 2016)[13] 15,000 fighters (in 2018)[9]
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown
12,763 killed civilians
(March 2011 to February 2018, per SNHR)[14]
~18,000 killed overall
(Eastern Ghouta hospital sources)[15]
105,000 displaced (2018)[16]
[show] v t e
Syrian Civil War
[show] v t e
Rif Dimashq Campaign
(Syrian Civil War)
The Siege of Eastern Ghouta was a siege that was laid in April 2013[1] by the
Syrian government forces to the area in eastern Ghouta held by anti-government
forces since November 2012, during the Syrian Civil War. The cities and villages
under siege were Douma, Mesraba, Arbin, Hamouria, Saqba, Modira, Eftreis, Jisrin,
as well as suburbs of Damascus Beit Sawa, Harasta, Zamalka, Ein Tarma and Kafr
Batna.[17] By 2016, around 400,000 people were trapped in an area just over 100
square kilometres in size,[13] thus with a population density around 4,000
hab./km�.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2401, adopted on 28 February 2018,

called for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria for 30 days, including Eastern Ghouta,
but the Syrian Army continued the offensive. In March 2018, the Syrian Army split
the enclave into three parts, reaching an agreement with the rebels to withdraw to
the north, to Idlib. This action displaced 105,000 people from the area. Douma was
the only city left by the end of that month that was not under Syrian government
control. Thousands of people were killed during this period. Numerous war crimes
allegations were made during the siege, among other from the United Nations Human
Rights Council, including the use of prohibited weapons, attacks on civilians,
attacks against protected objects (schools, hospitals), starvation as a method of
warfare and denial of medical evacuation.

Contents
1 Background
2 History
3 Casualties
4 War crimes allegations
5 Reactions
5.1 United Nations
5.2 Free Syrian Army
6 Gallery
7 References
8 External links
Background
See also: Rif Dimashq Governorate campaign and Battle of Douma
Prior to the Syrian Civil War, the total population of Eastern Ghouta, a collection
of farms and cities near Damascus, was around 1.5 million people.[1] During the
civil unrest that began in Syria in March 2011, some of the eastern Ghouta
residents took part in the protests against the Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad
and joined the Syrian rebels and expelled Syrian government forces by November
2012.[18] In February 2013, Syrian rebels captured parts of the ring road on the
edge of Damascus and entered the Jobar district of the capital city.[19] Backed by
Iran and Hezbollah, the Syrian Arab Army counterattacked and in April 2013 began a
siege of Eastern Ghouta, which is just 15 km or a half hour's drive outside the
capital Damascus.[20] Cut off from the rest of the country, the population of
Eastern Ghouta resorted to incineration of plastics to generate electricity. In
early 2015, when the Syrian government cut off water supplies to Duma, the
population adapted yet again and dug over 600 underground wells, using manual pumps
to supply water.[1]

History
See also: Rif Dimashq offensive (August�November 2014), Rif Dimashq offensive
(September 2015), Rif Dimashq offensive (June�October 2016), and East Ghouta inter-
rebel conflict (April�May 2017)

Map of the Eastern Ghouta enclave in 2017

In mid-2017, the main rebel faction in the area was Jaysh al-Islam, based in Douma
(with an estimated 10-15,000 fighters in the region in early 2018[21]). The second
largest was Faylaq al-Rahman, an official affiliate of the Free Syrian Army (FSA),
controlling much of central and western parts of Ghouta, including the Jobar and
Ain Terma districts. Ahrar al-Sham (based in Harasta) and Tahrir al-Sham (HTS -
controlling smaller districts such as Arbin, al-Ashari and Bait Naim, with an
estimated strength in the area of 500 in February 2018[22]) had a far smaller
presence.[23]

In August 2013, the area was subjected to a chemical attack that killed hundreds of
people,[24] after which an agreement was made to ban chemical weapons in Syria.
From 14 to 30 November 2017, the Russian-Syrian forces conducted more than 400
airstrikes in the area, hitting markets, schools and houses, and during some of
those airstrikes allegedly using banned cluster munition.[25]

Despite efforts at turning Ghouta into a de-escalation zone, reports of bombs

allegedly containing weaponised chlorine were registered again in early 2018.[26]
By January 2018, the area had only a single doctor per 3,600 people.[27]

After a series of offensive operations launched by Syrian rebels against positions

of the Syrian Arab Army in Harasta, a northeastern suburb of Damascus, and other
locations in Ghouta, the Syrian Arab Army launched an operation to capture the
rebel-held part of Ghouta in February 2018. The escalation of hostilities led to a
United Nations Security Council meeting held on 24 February 2018, voting
unanimously in favor of a 30-day cease-fire in Syria, and demanded immediate
lifting of the siege of eastern Ghouta.[28] In March 2018 the government offensive
continued, being supported by the Russia both diplomatically and militarily.[29]
[30] On 11 March, the Syrian government took control over several areas and split
the enclave into three pockets.[31] These pockets include Duma and it's
northeastern outskirts, eastern Harasta, and Zamalka and surrounding area.[32]
In mid-late March after a series of negotiations, a deal was finally reached
between the Syrian government and rebels that controlled parts of Eastern Ghouta.
The deal involved a transfer of remaining rebel fighters from the areas of eastern
Harasta, Zamalka and surrounding areas to the province of Idlib. 105,000 people
were displaced by this evacuation from the area.[16] By the end of March, Douma was
the last pocket controlled by the rebels, the Jaish al-Islam fighters.[33]

Casualties
In February 2018, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a UK-based non-governmental
organization, founded in June 2011, published a report alleging that 12,783
civilians were killed in and around Eastern Ghouta from March 2011 to February
2018, including 1,463 children and 1,127 women.[14]

According to local hospital sources, which were cited in the French newspaper Le
Monde, aproximately 18,000 people were killed in the enclave by October 2017.[15]

M�decins Sans Fronti�res claimed that 70 percent of the enclave's population lived
underground by November 2017 to escape bombardments. It also registered that, on
average, 71 people were being killed daily since the 18 February 2018 offensive. It
registered 1,005 people killed and 4,829 wounded in two weeks alone, between 18
February and 3 March 2018.[34]

War crimes allegations

Numerous war crimes allegations were made during the battle, including the use of
prohibited weapons, attacks on civilians, attacks against protected objects
(schools, hospitals), starvation as a method of warfare and denial of medical
evacuation.[1] The siege by the Syrian government left the enclave under a
humanitarian crisis, leading to famine and a lack of food.[35][36][37] According to
a 2014 United Nations report, the denial of food as a military strategy began
during July and August 2013: Eastern Ghouta's crops and farms were shelled and
burned. The report also alleged that Syrian forces "blocked access roads and
systematically confiscated food, fuel and medicine at checkpoints". Some
inhabitants had to rely on tree leaves as an alternative for vegetables to survive.
[38] The rebels established a web of underground tunnels to smuggle supplies, but
they were destroyed by the government forces.[39] UNICEF Representatives said that
at least 12 % of children under 5 were acutely malnourished in the enclave in early
2018.[40] On 27 October 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, warned that "the deliberate starvation of civilians
as a method of warfare constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian
law" and called for access of humanitarian workers to deliver aid to the people of
Eastern Ghouta.[41] The Syrian government restricted humanitarian aid to the
enclave. On 30 October 2017, supplies were allowed to only 40,000 residents in the
two cities of Kafr Batna and Saqba.[1] One U.N. aid convoy arrived to Eastern
Ghouta in Feberuary 2018, only after it had no access for 78 days.[42]

The Syrian government also used chemical weapons against the armed groups in
Eastern Ghouta, specifically in Ein Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar in July 2017, and on
Harasta on 18 November 2017. The agents included chlorine gas and organophosphorous
pesticide.[1] The Syrian government also used the internationally banned incendiary
weapons. In one such incident reported on 16 March 2018, at 11:48am, these weapons
were dropped on Kafr Batna, killing at least 61 and wounding over 200 people.[43]

In December 2017, satellite imagery analysis by UN experts concluded that 3,853

buildings were destroyed, 5,141 severely damaged and 3,547 moderately damaged in
the western parts of the enclave. The suburb of Jobar was 93 % destroyed, Ein Tarma
73 % and Zamalka 59 %.[44] Hospitals in Eastern Ghouta were reported to have been
shelled: Syrian army forces destroyed a field hospital in Al-Zemaniyah during a
ground operation in July 2013, while shells landed near Al-Fatih hospital, where
victims of the chemical attack were treated, forcing it to discharge its patients.
[38] Between 4 and 21 February 2018, the Syrian-Russian bombardments killed 346
people in Eastern Ghouta.[45] Local counts reported 700 deaths in the three months
up to mid-February 2018, many of them civilians.[46] On 7 December 2017, the United
Nations Senior Advisor Jan Egeland called east Ghouta the "epicenter of suffering".
[47]

The rebels who hold Eastern Ghouta have been accused of firing mortars at
government-held central Damascus, killing dozens of civilians.[1][48][49]

Amnesty International has called the "unlawful siege and unlawful killing of
civilians, including the use of internationally banned cluster munitions" by the
Syrian government and Russia a war crime and a crime against humanity.[50]

Reactions
United Nations
See also: UN investigation of chemical weapons use in Ghouta
2013: After the alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ghouta area of Damascus, the
UN sent a inspection team to begin an investigation. The final report concluded
that evidence suggests that "surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent
sarin were used in Ein Tarma, Moadamiyah and Zamalka". The Russian government
dismissed the initial UN report after it was released, calling it "one-sided" and
"distorted".[51]

2018: After the start of the renewed SAA offensive called "Rif Dimashq offensive"
during mid-February, the UN proposed a 30-day ceasefire aimed at allowing aid
deliveries to enter besieged areas, as well as medical evacuations.[52] This
ceasefire was "ignored" as the SAA continued it's advances into the rebel-
controlled areas. It was reported that in the following month, some 25 food trucks
were allowed in. Some argued that this was simply not enough for the people living
in war-torn areas.[53]

Free Syrian Army

Main article: 2018 Hama Attacks
By 14 March 2018, the FSA launched an offensive called "Anger for Ghouta" against
SAA positions northwest of Hama. The same day, the villages of Kernaz and Hamamiyat
were captured. This offensive was believed to be in retaliation over SAA advances
in Eastern Ghouta. On 15 March, NDF recaptured all lost positions to the rebels.
[54][55][56]

Gallery

White Helmets looking for survivors in Arbin

Aerial bombardments of East Ghouta in February 2018

Ruins in Arbin on 27 February 2018

A child casualty on 29 October 2017

A family in Ghouta on 28 February 2018

Streets of Arbin in 2018

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"Member of the 'General Command' dies in the eastern Ghouta clashes". Action Group
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"Regime sends more forces to Ghouta as UN decries 'apocalypse' in Syria".
"Photos: Members Of Pro-Government Syrian Social Nationalist Party Participate In
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"Free Palestine Movement mourns one of its members". Action Group for Palestinians
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"Breaking: Russian airpower pulverizes militant defenses across east Damascus amid
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Tom Rollins (18 December 2016). "The unravelling of Syria's Eastern Ghouta". Al
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"Aproximately 13,000 Civlians Killed at the Hands of Syrian Regime Forces in
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Madjid Zerrouky (26 October 2017). "En Syrie, les faubourgs rebelles de Damas
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20.02.2018
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Suffering, Syria Deeply, Aug. 1, 2017
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"Limited food allowed to enter Syria's besieged Eastern Ghouta".
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External links
flag Syrian civil war portal
Syria: Left to Die Under Siege Amnesty International report in 2015
[show] v t e
Syrian Civil War
Categories: Military operations of the Syrian Civil War in 2013Rif Dimashq
Governorate in the Syrian Civil WarCrimes against humanityMilitary operations of
the Syrian Civil War involving the Syrian governmentMilitary operations of the
Syrian Civil War involving HezbollahMilitary operations of the Syrian Civil War
involving the Free Syrian ArmySieges of the Syrian Civil WarSyrian Civil War
crimesMilitary operations of the Syrian Civil War in 2018Russian war crimesMilitary
operations of the Syrian Civil War involving chemical weapons
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