Assad warplanes carried out on Monday (May 1) multiple airstrikes on several areas in Damascus eastern countryside (eastern Ghouta), killing and injuring many civilians.
Cluster ammunition and guided parachute rockets were used in the air raids by Assad fighter jets which targeted residential areas in the cities of Saqba and Hammoriya, activists reported.
The initial death toll was put at 5 civilians, including two children and a woman, according to the activist-run Ghout Media Center FB page.
Rescuers of the Syria Civil Defense also reported the strikes and published photos of rescued civilians including infants.
(Civil defense volunteers pulling a girl from under the rubble after Assad regime’s airstrikes on Hammoriya, eastern Ghouta, May 1, 2017 - Photo: Syria Civil Defense)
(A civil defense volunteers pulling an infant girl from under the rubble after Assad regime’s airstrikes on Hammoriya, eastern Ghouta, May 1, 2017 - Photo: Syria Civil Defense)
They said that their volunteer teams rushed to the attacked areas in Saqba and Homoriya to remove the rubble and rescue the injured.
Activists also published photos of the unexploded parachute rockets ordnance used against civilians by Assad regime. The photos show an unexploded rocket and the parachute to which it was attached.
(The unexploded parachute rocket dropped by Assad warplanes on eastern Ghouta, May 1, 2017 - Photo: Ghouta Media Center)
In the towns of Misraba and Kafr Batna, Assad artillery shelling was also reported on civilian-populated areas. The shelling resulted in physical damages and caused panic among unarmed civilians.
Photos of the destruction and of the escaping civilians were published by activists on social media platforms.
(Civilians running in panic after Assad regime’s artillery shelling on Kafr Batna, eastern Ghouta, May 1, 2017 - Photo: Ghouta Media Center)
(Men rushing to rescue a girl after being pulled from under the rubble following an Assad regime artillery shelling on Kafr Batna, eastern Ghouta, May 1, 2017 - Photo: Ghouta Media Center)
According to observers, Assad regime is exploiting the current disagreements and fighting between opposition fighters in eastern Ghouta to occupy more lands. The intra-fighting, which started on Friday (April 28), between Jaysh al-Islam and al-Rahman Corps killed at least 100 fighters on both sides. Civilians in eastern Ghouta protested the fighting and demanded resolving the differences in order to fight Assad terrorists and prevent them from making any progress into eastern Ghouta.