Putin orders daily pauses in assault on rebel-held Ghouta amid reports of chemical attack

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu says President Vladimir Putin has ordered daily "humanitarian pauses" in Syria's rebel-held eastern Ghouta.

Shoigu said in a statement on Monday that the ceasefire will be arranged for the suburb of the capital Damascus between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. every day starting Tuesday. He also said Russia will help set an evacuation route for civilians in the area.

The announcement comes two days after the UNSecurity Council unanimously approved of a resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire across Syria.

Eastern Ghouta has been under intensive bombing by government forces for weeks.

A family of nine was killed inSyrian government bombardment of the rebel enclaveovernight, as airstrikes and fighting have persisteddespite a Security Council resolution, a war-monitor group said on Monday.

Local health authorities saidlate Sunday that several people had suffered symptoms consistent with chlorine gas exposure, killing one child, afteran explosion.

"Eastern Ghouta cannot wait. It is high time to stop thishell on Earth," UNSecretary General Antonio Guterres told the UNHuman Rights Council in Geneva, calling for implementationof the 30-day ceasefire sought by the Security Council.

Clawingback control

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia and Iran,has steadily clawed back control of areas where his opponentsrose up against his rule in 2011. Eastern Ghouta is the lastmajor insurgent stronghold near Damascus, the seat of his power.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Suspected chlorine gas attack in Syria

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Survivors treated with oxygen; aerial bombing reportedly kills over two dozen, including children

The bombardment of eastern Ghouta over the past week hasbeen one of the heaviest of Syria's seven-year war, killing atleast 522 people in seven days, according to a toll compiled bythe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor.

It said two bodies had been pulled from the rubble of a homedestroyed by an airstrike in the Ghouta town of Douma, withseven others from the same family dead underneath.

The UNSecurity Council, including Russia, approved theresolution demanding a 30-day truce on Saturday. The intensityof the bombardment has diminished since then but has stillkilled two dozen people, the observatory said.

Civilians rushed from their shelters to get food and return quickly since the warplanes are still in the sky and can hit at any moment.- Moayad Hafi, rescue worker

Rebel shelling has caused 36 deaths and a number of injuriesin Damascus and nearby rural areas in the last four days, ZaherHajjo, a government health official, told Reuters.

In eastern Ghouta, people were making use of the relativelull in the bombardment to find provisions, said Moayad Hafi, arescue worker based there.

"There is less bombardment relative to recent days.Civilians rushed from their shelters to get food and return quickly since the warplanes are still in the sky and can hit atany moment," he told Reuters in a voice message.

Iran's military chief of staff saidSunday thatpro-Damascus forces would press ahead with the offensive in the Damascus suburbs, saying the ceasefire did not cover parts ofthe Damascus suburbs "held by the terrorists."

The main rebel factions in eastern Ghouta are Jaish al-Islamand Failaq al-Rahman. Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance of jihadistgroups including the former al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front, alsohas a presence there.

Accusations ofchemical use

Syrian state television reported that army units haddirected strikes and advanced against militants near Harasta in eastern Ghouta. State news agency SANA also reported that thearmy had stopped a car bomb being driven into Damascus.

The Nusra Front has consistently been excluded fromceasefires in Syria, and the opposition says the government has used this as an excuse to keep up its bombardments.

The Syrian government has consistently denied using chemicalweapons in the war, which will soon enter its eighth year. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and half ofSyria's pre-war population have been forced from their homes.

Russia, which backs the Assad government, accused rebels ofpreparing to use toxic agents in eastern Ghouta so they couldlater accuse Damascus of employing chemical weapons.

In recent weeks, the United States has accused Syria ofrepeatedly using chlorine gas as a weapon. Rebel-held areas ofthe Ghouta region were hit in a major chemical attack in 2013.

Last year, a joint inquiry by the United Nations and theOrganization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons found the Syrian government was responsible for an April 4,2017, attack using the banned nerve agent sarin in the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing dozens.

The inquiry had previously found that Syrian governmentforces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015, and that ISIS militants had used mustard gas.

Elsewhere in Syria, an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalitionfighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syriakilled 25 people more than half of them women and children in the militant group's last enclave on theEuphrates River in Syria, the observatory said on Monday.

A coalition spokesperson said it would make a civilian casualtyassessment.