\n Syria's ruined rebel holdout region of Eastern Ghouta, where violence has ramped up in recent weeks, has been besieged since 2013, suffering attacks and malnutrition.\n<\/p>\n
\n Here is a summary of what has happened in the area, home to around 400,000 people:\n<\/p>\n
\n - Battle for Damascus -\n<\/p>\n
\n Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels launch an attack on the capital Damascus from its suburb of Ghouta in July 2012, more than a year after the start of an uprising against the regime.\n<\/p>\n
\n After a week of fighting, the regime asserts control of most of Damascus, but parts of its suburbs fall into rebel hands.\n<\/p>\n
\n Fighting flares again at the end of 2012 as the rebels set up base in Eastern Ghouta.\n<\/p>\n
\n The area becomes the target of regular bombings and artillery strikes; markets, schools and hospitals are hit.\n<\/p>\n
\n From 2013 Eastern Ghouta is totally under government siege.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Sarin gas -\n<\/p>\n
\n In August 2013, hundreds of people including many children are killed in a chemical attack on Eastern Ghouta and another rebel bastion near Damascus, Moadamiyet al-Sham.\n<\/p>\n
\n The opposition blames President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which denies involvement.\n<\/p>\n
\n Washington also squarely accuses the Syrian government of responsibility, saying more than 1,400 people, including 426 children, were killed.\n<\/p>\n
\n US and French retaliatory strikes are averted only after a last-gasp agreement between the US and regime supporter Russia that Syria's chemical weapons arsenal will be destroyed.\n<\/p>\n
\n A UN report concludes days later that the use of sarin gas had been proved \"unequivocally and objectively\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - Malnutrition -\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2016, UN humanitarian operations chief Stephen O'Brien says nearly one million Syrians are under siege, including in Eastern Ghouta, in a \"deliberate tactic of cruelty\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Following the release of shocking images of severely malnourished children in Eastern Ghouta, the United Nations in October 2017 condemns \"the deliberate starvation of civilians as a method of warfare\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The following month, UNICEF says childhood malnutrition levels in the region are the highest recorded in Syria since the war began.\n<\/p>\n
\n A survey in November showed that 11.9 percent of children under five were suffering from acute malnutrition, compared with 2.1 percent in a similar survey in January, it says.\n<\/p>\n
\n Once an important producer of food, Ghouta has been ravaged, with buildings and roads in ruin and costs soaring.\n<\/p>\n
\n While some food is still grown locally, or smuggled in, humanitarian access to the region has been limited despite regular appeals from aid agencies.\n<\/p>\n
\n The United Nations says in late November that 500 people, including children with complex medical issues, need urgent evacuation from Eastern Ghouta.\n<\/p>\n
\n In December, 29 patients in critical condition are evacuated from the enclave in a controversial swap deal between the regime and rebels.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'De-escalation zone' bombed -\n<\/p>\n
\n Eastern Ghouta is in May 2017 agreed as one of four \"de-escalation\" zones under a deal between Russia, Iran and Turkey, but the government maintains its blockade and renews bombardment in mid-November.\n<\/p>\n
\n In early 2018, violence ramps up in Eastern Ghouta. In January chlorine is suspected of having been used on two occasions in munitions launched by the regime in the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n On February 6 United Nations war crimes investigators say they are investigating reports that chemical weapons have been used in Saraqeb in Idlib and in Douma in Eastern Ghouta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Syria's ruined rebel holdout region of Eastern Ghouta, where violence has ramped up in recent weeks, has been besieged since 2013, suffering attacks and malnutrition. Here is a summary of what has happened in the area, home to around 400,000 people: - Battle for Damascus - Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels launch an attack on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-36337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n