(Previous Incident Codes: R2842RS3038)

As many as nine civilians, including two children and one woman, were killed and at least one civilian was wounded as the Syrian regime and/or Russia carried out air and artillery shelling of Douma, eastern Ghouta, Damascus, local media reported.

As several sources reported, large parts of eastern Ghouta, including Douma, were subject to heavy shelling around February 19th, 2018.

Arab48, blaming the Syrian regime, described the situation as “a new escalation of the regime’s forces”. In Douma, Safeildeyn tweeted that the city had been subject to “eight attacks by the city since morning”.

The death toll spanned from three to as many as nine – the latter reported by Orient News’ correspondent. Several reports, including Syrian Network for Human Rights, reported three fatalities; two children and one woman. A photo of one of the child victims, a small baby, was published by some sources.

According to al-Jazeera, at least one civilian was left wounded.

However, sources were not clear in terms of apportion of blame. Most reports blamed the Syrian regime, pointing to aerial shelling from its warplanes and helicopters, while Hasan Mustafa also blamed the regime for launching surface-to-surface missiles.

Meanwhile, Marshad al-Hassaka blamed Russia in general terms for carrying out heavy shelling of eastern Ghouta, however without mentioning Douma specifically.

Finally, several reports blamed both Russia and the Syrian regime, including Safeildeyn.