'Already 500 dead by action against East Ghouta'

damascus - The Syrian government army has killed at least five hundred civilians in a week's bombing of East Ghouta, a rebel stronghold near the capital Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported to the BBC that 121 children are among the dead.

Only Saturday, according to the observatory, about thirty people were killed. Seventeen of them fell in the city of Douma.

East Ghouta is one of the last strongholds of opponents of President Bashar al-Assad and has been besieged since 2013. According to the UN, almost 400,000 people live in the area. More and more inhabitants are suffering from malnutrition due to food shortages. The Syrian army has been bombarding the enclave since Sunday with heavy bombing and artillery bombardments.