Syrian army targets rebel-held Eastern Ghouta out of ceasefire time

DAMASCUS, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian forces are targeting the rebel-held areas in Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus out of the designated times of the daily ceasefire in that area, said a statement on Sunday.

The military operations in Eastern Ghouta in the eastern countryside of Damascus came as a response to the rebels' mortar attacks and sniper fire on civilian areas in Damascus and its countryside, said the statement, adding that the army units captured several areas, including military bases, in Eastern Ghouta.

The army captured the areas of Otaya, Housh Salhiyeh, Housh Kharabo, Nashabiyeh, Herzammah, the Air Defense Battalion, the Transportation Regiment, the Elab Farms, and the Beit Nayem area.

The statement added that the Syrian forces are advancing in towns and farms toward the districts of Harasta and Douma in that area.

Meanwhile, the statement stressed that preparations are underway for the delivery of food aid to the civilians in Eastern Ghouta.

Syria's national TV said Sunday that the rebels in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta area were "collapsing."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian government forces' have captured 10 percent of Eastern Ghouta as part of the wide-scale military assault on the rebel-held areas in the sprawling Eastern Ghouta in the eastern countryside of Damascus.

Also, no humanitarian aid convoys entered Eastern Ghouta during the six-day-long humanitarian pause that was demanded by Russia, with the Syrian army accusing the rebels of preventing the exit of civilians through the Wafidin crossing northeast of Damascus. Enditem