BEIJING, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta area and the Kurdish-held Afrin region have grabbed headlines following a series of intense battles.
MASSIVE ASSAULT LAUNCHED BY PRO-GOVERNMENT ACTIVISTS
Eastern Ghouta, a sprawling suburb constituting of several towns, is seeing some of the most intense shelling by the government forces, who are poised to launch a massive assault to eliminate al-Qaida-linked groups, seen as a threat to the security of the Syrian capital.
On Sunday, the Syrian forces started the prelude to a massive ground offensive with heavy fire cover and airstrikes, while the rebels started raining down the capital with mortar shells, almost paralyzing life in eastern neighborhoods close to Eastern Ghouta.
Pro-government activists said that 13 people were killed and 58 others wounded by the explosion of 62 mortar shells, some of which fell on moving cars on the main roads.
Three schoolchildren were killed when a mortar shell struck the Dar al-Salam school in central Damascus, while some others were seen in hospitals sustaining wounds from the shelling.
The shelling and the rattling sounds of airstrikes have become the talk of the city and have temporarily stopped people in eastern Damascus from sending their kids to schools.
The military campaign aims to end the presence of the rebels in Eastern Ghouta, pro-government media outlets said, but it is no easy task as the rebels have been entrenched there for years.
Four key rebel groups are positioned inside Eastern Ghouta, the Islam Army, Failaq al-Rahman, Ahrar al-Sham and the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), known as al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.
On the other hand, the opposition activists, mainly the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that 190 people have been killed and 850 others wounded in Eastern Ghouta since the military shelling started on Sunday evening.
The United Nations (UN) has demanded for an end to the targeting of civilians in Eastern Ghouta. "It's imperative to end this senseless human suffering," said Panos Moumtzis, UN's regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syrian crisis.
The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition, Syria's main opposition group in exile, denounced the shelling on Eastern Ghouta as "war of extermination" and what it called "international silence" on the issue.
KURDISH-CONTROLLED AFRIN BATTERED BY TURKISH FORCES
In the north, the Kurdish-controlled Afrin region has been battered for a month by Turkish forces, who, together with allied Syrian insurgents, started a wide-scale offensive on January 20 to defeat the Kurdish People Protection Units (YPG) fighters there.
The YPG militia is regarded by Ankara as the Syrian affiliate of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey. However, the United States has supported the YPG to combat the Islamic State in Syria.
In Afrin, located in the northern countryside of Aleppo province, the YPG said in a statement that they welcome the arrival of the pro-government forces, in an attempt to "help the people of Afrin confront the Turkish attack," reported the Syrian national TV.
In a live broadcast from Afrin, Syrian state TV showed the soldiers arriving at the al-Ziyara checkpoint at the entrance of Afrin while warning shots were fired from Turkey to push the pro-government fighters out.
Syria's state media said the forces have entered Afrin, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that a small pro-government militant group retreated after coming under Turkish artillery shelling.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday called for direct negotiations between Damascus and Ankara to resolve the Afrin crisis, while Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin rejected on Wednesday the possibility of any political dialogue between the two countries.
The intelligence agencies of Turkey and Syria are in contact when it is necessary, while "high-level political dialogue between Ankara and Damascus is out of the question," Kalin said at a press conference in Ankara.
Lavrov on Tuesday called on Ankara to open direct talks with Damascus to resolve the Afrin issue, saying that "Turkey's legitimate security interests may be realized through direct dialogue with the Syrian government", according to state-run Anadolu Agency.
Kalin said Turkey has conveyed indirect messages to Syria via Russia and Iran within the scope of the Astana meetings.
Turkey and Russia have fought on opposing sides during the seven-year war, with Moscow the key ally of Assad and Ankara one of the main backers of rebels fighting to overthrow him. But Ankara shifted its Syria policy, seeking to mend ties with Russia and turning its firepower against Kurdish forces.
Since the onset of Syria's conflict in 2011, the YPG and its allies have carved out three autonomous cantons in the north, including Afrin. Their power expanded as they fought Islamic State militants with the help of U.S. jets -- though Washington opposes their political ambitions as does the Syrian government.
