Fire and fury

Fire and fury

Context:

• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has demonstrated once again that his regime cares little about the lives of its own people.

Why in news?

• The barbaric campaign of airstrikes and bombardments launched by government forces in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus, have killed at least 270 people in three days.

Eastern Ghouta:

• Eastern Ghouta, with an estimated population of 400,000, is one of the last significant areas held by militants fighting the regime.
• It fell into the hands of the rebels in the early stages of the seven-year-long civil war, and repeated government attempts to overrun it were foiled.
• It was here that chemical weapons were used in 2013, killing hundreds of people.
• There is a wide range of militant groups in Eastern Ghouta, including the Saudi-backed Jaysh al-Islam, the Qatar-funded Faylaq al-Rahman, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.·      
• The militants in Eastern Ghouta and the jihadist elements amongst them have repeatedly shelled government-controlled neighbourhoods in Damascus.