'Raining bombs': UN pleads for truce as warplanes pound Syrian district for 5th day

Warplanes pounded the last rebelenclave near Syria's capital for a fifth day running on Thursdayas the United NationsSecurity Council considered demanding a 30-day truceacross the country to allow emergency aid deliveries andmedical evacuations.

The UNenvoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, pleaded for aceasefire to halt one of the fiercest air assaults of the
seven-year civil war and prevent a "massacre" in the besiegedeastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus.

Majid Santiha, a father of four, was one of them killed in an airstrike Wednesday. Hisbody was carried away on a stretcher to a medical centre with his children.

'We will be judged by history'

One of his little boys was dug out from the rubble, blood trickling from cuts on his face. His sister, also alive, was slung over the shoulder of a rescue worker, her face and head scarf white from dust. Two other siblings also survived.

But with their father goneand their mother killed two years agoduring a bombing in the Jobar district,their uncle will now raise the children.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Syrian forces continue to bombard rebel-held Ghouta province

7 years ago

Duration 1:04

Unrelenting attacks causing civilian deaths, widespread damage

"There is a need for avoiding the massacre, because we willbe judged by history," UN Syria envoyStaffandeMisturasaid,urging the 15-member securitycouncil to act. The council was meeting on Thursday to
discussion the situation at the request of Russia.

President Bashar al-Assad's main ally Russia, which wields aveto on the Security Council, said it could support a 30-daytruce, but not one that included the Islamist militants it saysthe onslaught on eastern Ghouta is meant to target.

In the north, where Turkey launched an offensive in the pastmonth against a Kurdish militia, the Kurds say pro-governmentfighters were now deploying to the front lines to help repel theTurkish advance.

Government forces have also entered a part of Aleppocontrolled by the Kurdish YPG militia, a witness and a monitorgroup said, although the YPG denied this.

The Kurdish YPG allies with the United States in otherparts of Syria have sought assistance in recent days from theRussian-backed government to resist the Turkish offensive, anexample of the unexpected alliances wrought during a multi-sidedconflict that has drawn in neighbours and world powers.

Mass civilian casualties

International attention is now focused on the humanitarianplight in the eastern Ghouta, where 400,000 people have beenunder siege for years and where government bombardment escalatedsharply on Sunday, causing mass civilian casualties.

Residents of Douma, the biggest town in the district,described plumes of black smoke billowing from residential areasafter planes dropped bombs from high altitude. Searches wereunderway for bodies amid the rubble in the town of Saqba andelsewhere, said rescuers.

De Mistura said he hoped the security councilwould agree toa resolution calling for a ceasefire in eastern Ghouta, butacknowledged it would be difficult.

"I hope it will. But it's uphill. But I hope it will. It is very urgent," he said as he arrived at the UN in Geneva.

Residents and insurgents in easternGhoutasay high-altitudejets of the kind involved in bombing on Thursday morning areRussian, as Moscow's warplanes typically fly higher than thoseof the Syrian air force.

Damascus and Moscow deny targeting civilian areas and accuserebels of holding civilians as human shields. Western powershave also accused Russia of aiding the bombardment.

"Those who support the terrorists are responsible" for thesituation in easternGhouta, Kremlins pokespersonDmitryPeskovtold a conference call with reporters.

"Neither Russia, norSyria, nor Iran are in that category of states, as they arewaging an absolute war against terrorists in Syria."

Aid convoys await clearance

A White House statement said Washington backed the UN callfor a ceasefire to allow access for aid and medical evacuations.