AFP, Washington :
The United States urged Russia on Thursday to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to respect attempts to allow residents out of the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta.
“The Assad regime continues attacking its citizens, especially in East Ghouta,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said.
“We do not seek a conflict with the Syrian regime, but we call on Russia to restrain the Assad regime, de-conflict counterterrorism operations with the coalition, and de-escalate the remaining battlefields of the Syrian civil war.” Syrian regime forces have clashed with rebels on the outskirts of Eastern Ghouta, despite Russia on Monday ordering a daily “humanitarian pause” in the enclave to grant civilians safe passage to flee.
That move fell far short of a full ceasefire voted for by the United Nations Security Council.
“The failed ceasefire called into question Russia’s commitment to de-escalate violence and negotiate a political solution,” White said.
“Russia’s inability to exert control over the portions of the battlefield where they operate is troublesome.”
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces have gained ground from rebels at the edge of the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday, in a ground assault that has continued despite a Russian plan for daily ceasefires.
The Syrian army and rebel sources could not immediately be reached for comment.
Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said government forces had captured the village of Hawsh Zreika in addition to Hawsh al-Zawahra, in the Maraj area at the eastern and southeastern edge of the rebel enclave.
In one of the fiercest onslaughts of Syria’s seven-year-old civil war, hundreds of people have died in 12 days of bombing of eastern Ghouta, a swathe of towns and farms outside Damascus that is the last major rebel-controlled area near the capital.
Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s most powerful ally, has called for daily ceasefires from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (0700 GMT to 1200 GMT), with the stated aim of allowing civilians to leave the besieged enclave and to allow in aid.
The U.S. State Department said on Thursday that the Russian plan was “a joke”, saying people were afraid to use them because of fear of conscription, exile or death. There has been no sign of aid deliveries to the area.
