BEIRUT: The United Nations called on Tuesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Syria of at least a month, as heavy air strikes were reported to have killed dozens of people in the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus.

Separately, UN war crimes experts said they were investigating several reports of bombs allegedly containing chlorine gas being used against civilians in the rebel-held towns of Saraqeb in the north-western province of Idlib and Douma in the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus. The Syrian government denies using chemical weapons.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday’s bombardment of Eastern Ghouta had killed at least 47 people. A local official, Khalil Aybour, put the toll at 53.

On Monday, air strikes killed 30 people in Eastern Ghouta, the Observatory said.

“Today there is no safe area at all. This is a key point people should know: there is no safe space,” Siraj Mahmoud, the head of the Civil Defence rescue service in opposition-held rural Damascus, said. “Right now, we have people under rubble, the targeting is ongoing, warplanes on residential neighbourhoods.”

Insurgent shelling of government-held Damascus killed three people, the Observatory and Syrian state media reported.

Air strikes also killed at least six people in rebel-held Idlib including five in Tarmala village, the Observatory said.

UN officials in Syria called for fighting to stop to enable aid deliveries and the evacuation of sick and wounded, listing seven areas of concern including northern Syria’s Kurdish-led Afrin region, being targeted by a Turkish offensive.

“For the last two months we have not had a single (aid-delivery) convoy. This is really outrageous,” said Panos Moumtzis, assistant UN secretary general and regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria Crisis.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, helped by Iranian-backed militias and the Russian air force, is pursuing military campaigns against insurgents in the last major pockets of territory held by his opponents in western Syria.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2018