Orient Net, March 15, 2018– Assad militias killed dozens and used chlorine gas on Wednesday (March 14), in their ongoing offensive to retake the opposition-held enclave of eastern Ghouta near Syria’s capital, Damascus.

Orient News correspondent said several civilians suffered suffocations after regime militias targeted residential areas in Hammouriyah city with toxic chlorine.

44 people lost their lives and tens were wounded, as Assad militias and Russian aircraft intensified shelling in Hammouriya, Kafarbatna, Saqba, Jesrin, Hazzah and Arbin towns and cities, our correspondent reported.

Syria Civil Defense also reported death of one of their volunteer rescuers in a double Russian strike against their ambulance in Hazza, confirming the heavy airstrikes and shelling in Kafarbatna and Hazza that prevented them from heading immediately to save the victims.

   Syria Civil Defense also reported death of one of their volunteer rescuers in a double Russian strike against their ambulance in Hazza

They published later a video showing the “massive destruction and state of panic after brutal air raids on residential neighborhoods in Kafarbatna city.”

A doctor in Hamouria says he was overwhelmed and that for four hours, no vehicle was able to move the injured to a medical facility. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for his own safety, according to Reuters.

Recent regime advances have cleaved eastern Ghouta into a northern and southern pocket. The bombing Wednesday focused on the southern pocket.

Local authorities in Harasta, one of the towns in eastern Ghouta, meanwhile, said they have been cut off from the rest of the enclave, isolating 20,000 residents with no access to medical aid or supplies.

Two groups of sick and injured civilians left eastern Ghouta on March 13 and 14 under the first medical evacuation since the offensive began, and a 25-truck convoy carrying food and medical aid will enter the besieged, opposition-held town of Douma on Thursday (March 15), a senior adviser in the Syrian Arab Red Crescent told Reuters.

Despite a UN ceasefire, the regime’s military offensive continued against the region, only miles from the Syrian capital and in opposition hands since 2012.