BEIRUT -- Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed Sunday to continue with a military offensive in a rebel-held region near the capital, as troops and allied militias captured a number of villages and towns.
Speaking to a small group of reporters in Damascus, Assad said the five-hour daily "humanitarian pause" in eastern Ghouta would continue, to allow for any civilians wishing to leave the area to do so. Ghouta is adjacent to Damascus, the Syrian capital.
"There is no contradiction between the truce and the military operation," he added.
The Syrian government and its chief backer, Russia, said they set up a humanitarian corridor for evacuations nearly a week ago. Russia has accused the rebels of preventing civilians from using it. The rebels have denied that, though they say the humanitarian corridor is part of government efforts to forcibly displace the population. The rebels want a full cease-fire adopted by the U.N. Security Council but have otherwise refused to surrender, vowing to fight to their last man, saying they are defending their hometowns.
Assad also denied that the Syrian government carried out toxic gas attacks, describing such reports as part of the Western countries' "dictionary of lies."
Meanwhile, the United Nations said it planned to deliver aid to a total of 70,000 people in the stricken region starting today after it received approval from the government to move in. U.N. officials had said lack of approvals and consensus among the warring parties, as well as the limited duration of the five-hour Russian-ordered humanitarian pause, had made aid delivery impossible.
Syria's Central Military Media said government forces captured at least six villages and towns along the edge of eastern Ghouta in the advance that began late Saturday -- the largest advance since a wide-scale operation began last month. The Central Military Media later said the troops continued their movement, reaching the outskirts of Mesraba, in central Ghouta.
The military advances come amid reports of wide-scale internal displacement as civilians flee government forces.
A reporter from state-run Al-Ikhbariyah TV accompanied the troops and broadcast from Nashabiyah, a village on the southeastern edge of eastern Ghouta. The reporter said the Syrian troops had crossed a "moat" and seized more than 4 square miles. The advance was backed by intense shelling and airstrikes.
Rebel factions said they launched a counteroffensive Sunday, sending fighters behind government lines in a series of attacks. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebels regained control of at least one town and fighting continued.
The Observatory and the Syrian Civil Defense said civilians had fled their homes because of the advancing troops, with many of them taking cover in underground shelters.
"It is a scorched-earth policy," said Ghouta-based activist Nour Adam. "People are moving out because of the relentless bombing."
Also on Sunday, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said the French leader "strongly urged" Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to pressure the Syrian government to end "the indiscriminate attacks against the besieged populations of eastern Ghouta, to allow humanitarian access and evacuate the critical medical cases."
In a phone call, Macron and Rouhani agreed to work together in the coming days to obtain results on the ground, deliver the necessary assistance to civilians and implement the U.N.-sponsored cease-fire, the French president's office said in a statement.
Macron made a plea to Rouhani about the situation in eastern Ghouta because of the "links" between Iran and the Syrian government, the French statement said.
The White House condemned the offensive in eastern Ghouta, saying in a statement Sunday that the Syrian campaign backed by Russia and Iran is killing "innocent civilians under the false auspices of counterterrorism operations."
"This is the same combination of lies and indiscriminate force that Russia and the Syrian regime used to isolate and destroy Aleppo in 2016, where thousands of civilians were killed," the U.S. statement said.
DEATHS TOP 600
Eastern Ghouta, home to some 400,000 people, has been under siege by government forces since 2013, and has endured daily bombardment for months. More than 600 civilians have been killed in the last two weeks alone.
Hamza Beriqdar, spokesman of the main rebel faction in Ghouta called the Army of Islam, said in an audio recording shared on social media that the opposition fighters had to retreat from some areas in eastern Ghouta amid a hail of fire from artillery shelling, airstrikes and helicopter attacks, also calling it a "scorched earth policy." He said the rebels are regrouping and will continue to fight, and he called on civilians in Ghouta not to lose faith or criticize rebel fighters, to keep a unified front and to maintain morale.
Al-Ikhbariya TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying the latest operation came in response to the shelling of Damascus and the surrounding area by rebels. The official said preparations are underway to deliver food to civilians in the besieged area.
The last aid delivery to Ghouta was on Feb. 14, when help was sent to around 7,000 people in Nashabiyah, now under government control. The U.N. said it has received assurances that the next convoy will be delivered Thursday.
Meanwhile, thousands of civilians have been huddling in basements, tunnels and underground shelters across the sprawling eastern Ghouta region, hiding from the bombs of Syrian army jets. They describe damp, mostly unhygienic conditions where dozens or sometimes even hundreds of people spend hours and often days on end, in constant fear that the blasts outside could crush their refuge. They declined to share photos, fearing they would expose their locations to air strikes.
A 30-year-old teacher and mother of a 22-month-old child recalled the first time hearing an earthshaking airstrike above her shelter: "I froze. I was in shock and didn't know what to do. Do I run? Where to? Do I sit still? Where do I go? It was unbearable."
"It is not really a matter of choice," she added, speaking on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation. "It is the closest place considered safe. But it is not safe. The barrel bomb sometimes lands at the shelter. Either at the door or inside, injuring or killing many."
The teacher lives in Douma, the area's largest town, home to an estimated 120,000 people and one of the most active front lines. She said she is afraid for herself and her family if the government retakes her hometown, but also fears the rebel factions who control the area and tolerate little criticism.
"Regrettably there is no voice for the civilians here. We can't speak our mind or speak for the civilians. We can't stand up to the factions and [say] 'tell me how did you let us get this far,'" she told AP in a series of text messages, most of them recorded while she lingered in the shelter with her son. "We could have changed plans long time ago. Now, we don't know where we are going."
Damp and crowded, her shelter has no ventilation, is full of smoke from jittery, smoking residents and has over 70 women who permanently live there.
For hours, she chases her overactive son, sometimes grabbing him as he tries to climb the stairs out of the shelter. She has seen a girl knocked down those stairs by the force of a strike outside. In a nearby shelter, another child was killed by a strike as she stood outside for air.
Neemat Mohsen, who heads the local women's office in Saqba, another town in eastern Ghouta, said in some shelters 350 or more people live with no running water and no electricity.
"We feel the prison shrinking," she said. "We were first besieged in an enormous prison called eastern Ghouta, now we are trapped in shelters similar to tombs."
Bassam Abu Bashir, a doctor in a hospital in Sabqa, said with the front line moving away from his hometown on Ghouta's southern edge, he has had time to go around looking for milk and medicine to distribute to the shelters. The local milk factory was bombed.
"A visit to the grocer used to be 15 minutes. Now you have to search for three hours to find food or bread," Abu Bashir said.
The teacher expressed frustration about the silence from the U.N. and the international community in the face of what she called "our forced displacement."
"Why should we be forced out of our homes? Why is it acceptable that [the government] brings other people to live in them?" she asked.
She said residents don't want to go to Idlib, the opposition-held northwestern province where others who were evacuated from besieged areas have been taken. The province is ruled by al-Qaida-linked groups.
"We rejected them," she said. "Why should we live with them and then again, [the government] starts bombing us there?"
Information for this article was contributed by Philippe Sotto of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/05/2018