BEIRUT (Reuters) - The two major rebel factions in Syria’s eastern Ghouta welcomed on Saturday a U.N. resolution demanding a 30-day truce across the country to allow aid access and medical evacuations.

In separate statements, Jaish al-Islam and Failaq al-Rahman pledged to protect aid convoys that come into the besieged rebel enclave near Damascus. The insurgents said they would commit to a truce, but would respond to any violation by the Syrian government and its allies.

The U.N. Security Council adopted the resolution on Saturday, as one of the deadliest air assaults of the seven-year war pounded eastern Ghouta this week.</s>A civil defence volunteer, known as the White Helmets, checks the site of a regime air strike in the rebel-held town of Saqba, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region, on Saturday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS — Rescuers in Syria’s eastern Ghouta said the bombing would not let up long enough for them to count the bodies during one of the bloodiest air assaults of the seven-year war, while the UN Security Council called for a 30-day humanitarian truce.

The vote at the United Nations came as warplanes pounded Eastern Ghouta, the last rebel enclave near Syria’s capital, for a seventh straight day while residents holed up in basements.

The Security Council approved a resolution demanding a 30-day truce to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations with the support of Syrian ally Russia after a flurry of last-minute negotiations.

Medical charities have decried attacks on a dozen hospitals but the Damascus government and Russia, its key ally, say they only target militants. They have said they seek to stop mortar attacks injuring dozens in the capital, and have accused insurgents in Ghouta of holding people as human shields.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military.

A surge of rocket fire, shelling and air strikes has killed more than 500 people since Sunday night, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The dead included more than 120 children.

The Britain-based monitor said raids hit Douma, Zamalka and other towns there on Saturday, killing 31 people.

First responders searched for survivors after strikes on Kafr Batna, Douma and Harasta, the Civil Defence in Eastern Ghouta said. The rescue service, which operates in rebel territory, said it had documented at least 350 deaths in four days earlier this week.

“Maybe there are many more,” said Siraj Mahmoud, a civil defence spokesman in the suburbs. “We weren’t able to count the martyrs yesterday because the warplanes are touring the skies.”

As the bombs rain down, some hitting emergency centres and vehicles, workers have struggled to pull people from the rubble, Mahmoud said. “But if we have to go out running on our legs and dig with our hands to rescue the people, we will still be here.”

A witness in Douma said he woke up in the early hours on Saturday to the sound of a squadron of jets bombing nearby. The streets have mostly remained empty.

The United Nations says nearly 400,000 people live in Eastern Ghouta, a pocket of satellite towns and farms under government siege since 2013, without enough food or medicine. The local opposition council said it was setting up emergency volunteer teams in several districts to reinforce shelters with sandbags and try to link them through tunnels.

“Everyday we say God willing tomorrow will be better...Today, the main sight in the Ghouta is limbs, blood,” Mahmoud said. “There is no need to dig graves, we will be buried under our houses.”

The UN Security Council is to vote on Saturday on a draft resolution which demands a 30-day ceasefire across Syria to allow aid access and medical evacuations.

The 15-member council postponed voting on the text, which Sweden and Kuwait drafted. The delay followed a flurry of last-minute talks after Russia, a veto-holding ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, proposed new amendments.

The truce does not cover militants from Daesh, Al Qaeda, and the Nusra Front.

Several previous ceasefire attempts have quickly unravelled during the multi-sided conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands and forced 11 million people out of their homes.

Syrian state media said Ghouta factions fired mortars at districts of Damascus on Saturday, including near a school. Insurgent shelling wounded six people, it said, and the army heavily pounded militant targets in the suburbs in response.

The Ghouta pocket has become the war’s latest flashpoint, after a string of rebel defeats and negotiated withdrawals. With Russian jets and Iran-backed militias, Assad’s military has restored state rule over the main cities across western Syria.

Insurgents in Eastern Ghouta have vowed not to accept such a fate, ruling out the kind of evacuation that ended rebellion in Aleppo and Homs after bitter sieges.

Russia has blamed Nusra fighters, from Al Qaeda’s former Syria branch, for provoking the situation in the Ghouta. The two main Islamist factions there in turn accuse their enemies of using the presence of a few hundred extremist fighters as a pretext for attacks.</s>Syrian government forces have launched a ground and air offensive in Eastern Ghouta, witnesses said, hours after the UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces began fighting opposition groups from multiple fronts in the rebel-held enclave near Damascus on Sunday morning, while Syrian warplanes continued to shell the besieged area for the eighth consecutive day.

Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, is one of the many opposition groups in control of some areas in the enclave.

The biggest group is Free Syrian Army-linked Jaish al-Islam that says it has captured and killed "a number of soldiers" as they tried to make their way inside the city, Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid said.

Reporting from Gaziantep in neighbouring Turkey, Bin Javaid confirmed there were multiple attempts by the government to "storm" the area from several sides.

Rebel sources in control of the enclave were resisting the attacks, he reported, saying the fighters struggled to hold their positions on multiple fronts.

Opposition fighters say they will uphold the UN's ceasefire call, but will respond to any aggression as they reserve the right for self-defence.

The ceasefire's aim was to evacuate residents of the Damascus suburb, which is under siege, and to allow for the flow of food aid and medicine.

Last week, deadly air raids and artillery fire launched by Russian-backed Syrian forces exacerbated a dire humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave, home to some 400,000 people.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), more than 500 civilians were killed as a result of the aerial bombardment campaign that began on February 18.

"It is worth noting that before this [ground offensive] began, there has been relentless bombardment in many of the places in Eastern Ghouta, where those rebel defence lines were," Bin Javaid said.

Eastern Ghouta is the last remaining rebel-held area east of Damascus and has been under siege by Assad's forces since 2013, in an attempt to drive rebel forces out.

According to Bin Javaid, government forces have been "specifically targeting underground tunnels and hideouts".

"It seems that the government now is adamant to enter Eastern Ghouta."

Meanwhile, the head of Iran's armed forces Mohammed Baqri, said on Sunday Syria will respect the UN's call for a ceasefire, but will continue attacks against what he called "terrorists" and on areas controlled by Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham.

"UN resolution ceasefire on Syria does not cover Eastern Ghouta; mop-up operations to continue in suburbs," Tasnim quoted Baqri as saying on Twitter.

Syria and its allies, Russia and Iran, are fighting against opposition groups in Idlib province as well - one of the last remaining rebel-held areas in Syria.

Both Eastern Ghouta and Idlib were meant to be two of several "de-escalation zones" agreed upon a year ago by Russia, Iran - both government allies - and Turkey - a backer of the armed opposition.

'Lifesaving operations'

Mohamad Katoub, advocacy manager on behalf of hospitals and medical facilities in East Ghouta, stressed that the biggest challenge is the shelling that is targeting "humanitarian infrastructure".

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Gaziantep, Katoub noted rescue teams cannot move because of the destruction of the buildings and the continuous attacks.

"In the last six days, we lost 40 percent of our capacity to respond to the injuries and to the people in need of medical services in this area," he said.

Without adequate sanitation or food, pregnant women, patients with chronic diseases and children in need of vaccination are at risk of disease, he further noted.

"Now, we need lifesaving operations," Katoub said, referencing the thousands of civilians who are wounded.

"We don't have high hopes from this UNSC resolution - this is not the first UNSC resolution, which called for immediate aid inside Ghouta."

Security Council resolution

The vote on the UNSC resolution, sponsored by Kuwait and Sweden, had been delayed several times as council members tried to convince Russia to agree to its terms.

A meeting was originally scheduled for 11am local time (16:00 GMT) on Friday, but negotiations over the wording of the resolution had its sponsors make amendments to avoid a Russian veto.

As a result, the resolution did not specify a given time for the ceasefire to come into effect.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Steffan de Mistura, had stressed the urgent need for a ceasefire to stop the "horrific heavy bombardment of Eastern Ghouta and the indiscriminate mortar shelling on Damascus".

And earlier this week, the UN and other international bodies expressed outrage at the number of civilian casualties.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in fighting during Syria's seven-year civil war, and millions have been forced to flee the country.</s>Syrian government troops have launched a ground offensive in eastern Ghouta, witnesses said, clashing with rebel forces hours after the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire across Syria.

Witnesses told NBC News that within minutes of the resolution being passed on Saturday, warplanes were targeting residential neighborhoods in the region, where civilians sheltered in basements.

Syrian civil defense workers, known as the White Helmets, said Sunday that there had been “renewed aerial and artillery bombardment of most of the cities and towns of East Ghouta.”

They reported on Twitter that two civilians had been killed in the cities of Saqba and Hamouriya, while many others had been injured. NBC News could not verify the reports. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes hit the town of Shifouniyeh in the rebel enclave.

Noor Adam, who lives 500 meters from the frontline near Damascus, told NBC News that many people in his neighborhood were hiding underground. “The basements are full of children and women,” he said, adding that he could hear the clashes between the Syrian army and rebel fighters.

Witnesses said that hospitals were full, while one doctor, Abo Zaher, who lives in eastern Ghouta, told NBC News two medical centers had been hit in airstrikes on Sunday.

Saturday’s Security Council resolution followed seven days of air strikes and shelling by the Syrian government and its allies, in what has been one of the fiercest air-assaults of the seven-year war, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Several previous ceasefires have unraveled quickly in Syria, where government forces have gained the upper hand with the help of key allies Iran and Russia.

The leaders of Germany and France urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call to put “maximum” pressure on the Syrian government to stop fighting in eastern Ghouta, a German government spokesman said on Sunday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron made clear that a ceasefire was the basis for progress towards a political solution in the framework of the U.N.-led Geneva peace process, the German spokesman said.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Sunday that it was counting on foreign supporters of anti-government forces in Syria to ensure that the ceasefire was observed.

A Syrian man walks next to damaged buildings following regime air strikes in the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, February, 25, 2018. HAMZA AL-AJWEH / AFP – Getty Images

“We count upon foreign patrons of anti-government militant groups … to ensure that their charges stop combat activities in the interests of the quickest and safe transit of humanitarian convoys,” the ministry said on its website.

Ingy Sedky, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said it appeared to be relatively calm across Damascus compared with recent days, but that airplanes could be heard overhead.

Sedky said the ICRC were currently unable to deliver aid to eastern Ghoutta due to security concerns and it was still unclear when they would be able to launch an aid convoy.

“While the ceasefire is a positive step, what is more important for us now is to obtain the necessary security guarantees from all sides who are fighting in eastern Ghouta in order to be able to proceed and deliver aid. It is very hard to know when this can happen,” she told NBC News.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis denounced the “inhuman” violence in Syria Sunday, backing the cease-fire so that food and medicine can reach desperate Syrians and the sick and wounded can be evacuated.

Francis led thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square in praying for an “immediate” end to hostilities.

“The month of February has been one of the most violent in seven years of conflict: hundreds, thousands of civilian victims, children, women and the elderly, hospitals have been hit, people can’t get food. All this is inhuman,” he said, adding, “You can’t fight evil with evil.”</s>The U.N. Security Council on Saturday demanded a 30-day truce across Syria as rescuers in the country’s eastern Ghouta region said bombing had not let up long enough for them to count bodies during one of the bloodiest air assaults of the seven-year war.

Shortly after the unanimous vote by the 15-member council, warplanes struck a town in eastern Ghouta, the last rebel enclave near Syria’s capital, an emergency service and a war monitoring group said. Warplanes have pounded the region for seven straight days while residents holed up in basements.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres appealed on Wednesday for an immediate end to “war activities” in eastern Ghouta, where nearly 400,000 people have lived under government siege since 2013, without enough food or medicine.

While Syrian ally Russia supported the adoption of the U.N. resolution, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia cast doubt on its feasibility. Previous ceasefire deals on the ground have had a poor record of ending fighting in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s military has gained the upper hand.

“What is necessary is for the demands of the Security Council to be underpinned by concrete on the ground agreements,” Nebenzia told the council after the vote. He later told reporters it was unrealistic to expect an immediate ceasefire and that the parties had to be encouraged to work for it.

After several days of delay and last-minute negotiations to win the support of Russia, the council adopted the resolution – drafted by Sweden and Kuwait – demanding hostilities cease for 30-days “without delay” to allow aid access and medical evacuations.

“We accept that it might take a number of hours before it can all be fully implemented … we just have to keep the pressure up, implementation is key now,” Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom told Reuters.

Russia did not want to specify when a truce would start, so a proposal for the truce to begin 72 hours after adoption was watered-down to demand it start “without delay.” Further talks on Saturday added a demand for all parties to “engage immediately to ensure full and comprehensive implementation.”

“As they dragged out the negotiation, the bombs from Assad’s fighter jets continued to fall. In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and shelling?” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council.

“We are deeply skeptical that the (Syrian) regime will comply,” Haley said.

A surge of rocket fire, shelling and air strikes has killed more than 500 people since Sunday night, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The dead included more than 120 children.

The monitor said raids hit Douma, Zamalka and other towns there on Saturday, killing 40 people.

After the U.N. vote the two dominant rebel factions in Ghouta – Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam – both committed to implement the truce and facilitate aid access, but also reiterated their right to respond to any attacks on them.

Medical charities have decried attacks on a dozen hospitals. The Syrian government and Russia say they only target terrorists. Moscow and Damascus have said they seek to stop mortar attacks injuring dozens in the capital, and have accused insurgents in Ghouta of holding people as human shields.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military.

“We’re combating terrorism on our territories,” Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told the Security Council. “Our government will reserve the right to respond as it deems appropriate in case those terrorist arms groups are targeting civilians in any part of Syria with even one single missile.”

Ja’afari said his government interpreted the resolution as also applying to “Turkish forces in Afrin, and the operations of the anti-ISIL (Islamic State) coalition in Syria … Israeli forces in Syria, especially the occupied Syrian Golan.”

The truce demanded by the Security Council does not cover militants from Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and the Nusra Front.

First responders searched for survivors after strikes on Kafr Batna, Douma and Harasta, the Civil Defence in eastern Ghouta said on Saturday. The rescue service, which operates in rebel territory, said it had documented at least 350 deaths in four days earlier this week.

“Maybe there are many more,” said Siraj Mahmoud, a civil defense spokesman in the suburbs. “We weren’t able to count the martyrs yesterday because the warplanes are touring the skies.”

As the bombs rain down, workers have struggled to pull people from the rubble, Mahmoud said. “But if we have to go out running on our legs and dig with our hands to rescue the people, we will still be here.”

The local opposition council said it was setting up emergency volunteer teams in several districts to reinforce shelters with sandbags and try to link them through tunnels.

Several previous ceasefire attempts have quickly unraveled during the multi-sided conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands and forced 11 million people out of their homes.

Syrian state media said Ghouta factions fired mortars at districts of Damascus on Saturday, including near a school. Insurgent shelling wounded six people, it said, and the army heavily pounded militant targets in response.

The Ghouta pocket has become the war’s latest flashpoint, after a string of rebel defeats and negotiated withdrawals. With Russian jets and Iran-backed militias, Assad’s military has restored state rule over the main cities across western Syria.

Insurgents in eastern Ghouta have vowed not to accept such a fate, ruling out the kind of evacuation that ended rebellion in Aleppo and Homs after bitter sieges.

Russia has blamed Nusra fighters, from al-Qaida’s former Syria branch, for provoking the situation in Ghouta. The two main Islamist factions there in turn accuse their enemies of using the presence of a few hundred jihadist fighters as a pretext for attacks.</s>Fresh fighting has broken out on several fronts in eastern Ghouta, the besieged opposition-held enclave on the outskirts of Damascus, despite a 30-day ceasefire across all of Syria ordered by the United Nations.

After days of intense debate, the UN security council had voted unanimously on Saturday for a temporary truce to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and medical assistance.

But first reports from eastern Ghouta on Sunday said forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s Russian-backed president, had launched a new air and ground offensive in a bid to “storm” rebel positions.

Witnesses told al-Jazeera regime forces were attacking opposition groups on multiple fronts, while Syrian warplanes kept up their bombardment of the battered enclave for an eighth consecutive day.

Residents and human rights observers also described renewed attacks by planes and artillery, although the bombing was less intense than on previous days, Reuters reported. Clashes were occurring along several frontlines, and rebel fighters were said to be struggling to hold their positions. The Syrian military made no comment.

About 520 civilians have died and more than 2,500 have been wounded in Ghouta since a relentless barrage of regime rocket fire, shelling and airstrikes began last Sunday. The dead include more than 120 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The new fighting appeared to deal a blow to the authority of the UN and justify scepticism expressed by Russian officials about the viability of a ceasefire imposed from outside. If confirmed, a ground offensive would suggest the regime may be attempting to finally eliminate all resistance in Ghouta before the ceasefire takes effect.

The UN resolution called for the truce to begin “without delay” but did not set a specific timeframe, following Russian objections. Nor did it say how a ceasefire would be implemented, how the injured would be evacuated, or how returning aid workers would be protected.

Bashar Ja’afari, Syria’s ambassador to the UN, said the fight against terrorism would continue regardless, noting the ceasefire resolution excluded named organisations such as Islamic State and an al-Qaida affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly the al-Nusra Front.

“Our government will reserve the right to respond as it deems appropriate in case those terrorist arms groups are targeting civilians in any part of Syria with even one single missile,” Ja’afari said.

The two main rebel factions in Ghouta – Faylaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam – said after the vote that they would implement the truce and facilitate aid access. But they also vowed to respond to any attacks.

Iran, whose Revolutionary Guards and militiamen are fighting alongside Assad’s forces, said both it and Syria would respect the UN resolution. But General Mohammad Baqeri, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, insisted the ceasefire did not apply in areas of Damascus’s suburbs “held by the terrorists”, Iran’s Tasnim new agency reported.

The 30-day ceasefire was also binding on US troops and other members of the anti-Isis coalition present in Syria, and on Israeli forces based in the occupied Golan Heights, the Syrian government said.

Previous ceasefires in the seven-year-old Syrian civil war have had limited success. A truce agreed by the regime and backed by Russia during the siege of Aleppo in 2016 collapsed on its first day.</s>After the council vote Saturday, Syrian warplanes backed by Russian air power launched new raids on a town in Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. (Photo: AFP)

United Nations: The UN Security Council has unanimously demanded a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, as new air strikes on the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta took the civilian death toll from seven days of bombing to more than 500.

With support from Russia, the Security Council adopted a resolution on the ceasefire to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries and medical evacuations, but the measure did not specify when the truce would go into force beyond saying it should be "without delay."

After the council vote Saturday, Syrian warplanes backed by Russian air power launched new raids on a town in Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At least 127 children are among the 519 dead in the bombing campaign that the regime launched last Sunday on the rebel enclave, just outside Damascus, the British-based monitor said.

At least 41 civilians were killed in Saturday's strikes, including eight children. Russia has denied taking part in the assault.

Quickly following up on the vote, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will speak by phone Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to push for the truce to take hold "in the coming days," the Elysee palace said in a statement.

To this end France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will also go to Moscow on Tuesday.

The UN vote was initially expected to be held Thursday, but was repeatedly delayed as diplomats were locked in tough negotiations to avoid a veto from Russia, which is militarily supporting President Bashar Al-Assad.

"Every minute the council waited on Russia, the human suffering grew," US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council after the vote, accusing Moscow of stalling.

"As they dragged out the negotiations, the bombs from Assad's fighter jets continued to fall. In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and the shelling?"

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected accusations of foot-dragging, saying that negotiations were needed to arrive at a demand for a ceasefire that was "feasible."

"What is necessary is for the demands of the Security Council to be underpinned by concrete on-the-ground agreements," he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has described Eastern Ghouta as "hell on Earth," said the ceasefire must be "immediately" implemented.

To win Russia's approval, language specifying that the ceasefire would start 72 hours after adoption was scrapped, replaced by "without delay," and the term "immediate" was dropped in reference to aid deliveries and evacuations.

In another concession to Moscow, the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with "individuals, groups, undertakings and entities" associated with the terror groups.

That would allow the Syrian government offensive to continue against Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Idlib, the last province in Syria outside the control of Damascus.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said it was now important to ensure the ceasefire turns into reality on the ground, vowing to be "extremely vigilant... in the hours to come and the days to come."

"Nothing would be worse than seeing this resolution remain a dead letter," he said.

Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions throughout the Syrian conflict to block action that targeted its ally.

In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

In Eastern Ghouta, news of the UN vote on the ceasefire was greeted with a shrug.

"I don't think this decision will be implemented. It will be respected neither by the regime nor Russia," said Abu Mazen, a resident of Douma, Eastern Ghouta's main town.

"We can't trust Russia or the regime. We are used to their betrayals," he added.

Control of Eastern Ghouta is shared between two main Islamist factions, while Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate is also present.

Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of rebel fighters and their families like the one that saw the government retake full control of Syria's second city Aleppo in December 2016.

But all three rebel groups have refused.

World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta.

The enclave is surrounded by government-controlled territory, and its 400,000 residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.

In one of the many unfolding dramas at a field hospital in Douma, a young woman amputated from the knee breastfed a 40-day-old infant who had lost his entire family in the bombings.

Food supplies have been running dry, with bread no longer available on local markets.

The cornered rebels in Eastern Ghouta have been firing back into Damascus, where six civilians were wounded Saturday, state media said.

Around 20 people have been killed in eastern districts of the capital since last Sunday, according to state media.

More than 340,000 people have been killed and millions driven from the homes in the war, which in March enters its eighth year with no diplomatic solution in sight.</s>BEIRUT -- Despite a drop in intensity, shelling and bombardment in the Syrian capital and its embattled eastern suburbs killed at least six people Sunday following the UN Security Council's unanimous approval of a resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire across Syria, opposition activists and residents of Damascus said.

Attacks on residential areas appear to have shifted to strikes on front lines where some of the most intense fighting took place throughout the day between government forces and their allies against insurgents. State media said that troops pushed into the eastern suburbs, reports that the opposition denied.

Opposition activists reported clashes on the southern edge of the rebel-held suburbs, known as eastern Ghouta, and two airstrikes late on Saturday night, shortly after the resolution was adopted. During the day Sunday, more shelling and airstrikes were reported in eastern Ghouta and Damascus.

The drop in violence came after a week of intense airstrikes and shelling that killed more than 500 people in eastern Ghouta and left dozens dead or wounded in the government-held Damascus, which rebels pelted with mortar shells.

"This has been the calmest night since last Sunday," said Rami Abdurrahman who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, referring to the start of the bombing campaign on Feb. 19. He added that clashes between troops and rebels on Sunday were the most intense this month.

Syrian state TV said that the army captured several buildings in the rebel-held suburb of Harasta and pushed into several other areas on eastern Ghouta that is besieged by government forces from all sides. It also said that troops captured the small towns of Nashabiyeh, Hazrama and Housh al-Salihiyah on the southeastern edge of eastern Ghouta.

The Ghouta Media Center, an activist collective, said members of the Army of Islam insurgent group repelled the Syrian army's attacks on several fronts adding that many soldiers were killed.

The push by the army, although still limited, appears to be similar to steps taken in rebel-held eastern neighbourhoods of the northern city of Aleppo that government forces captured one after another until rebels eventually agreed to leave the city in December 2016, marking President Bashar Assad's biggest victory since the conflict began in 2011.

"The Assad regime and his allies have shown no respect to the Security Council by launching their most intense offensive on Ghouta from several directions hours after the resolution was adopted," said Ghouta-based activist Ahmad Khanshour. He added that government forces "did not succeed in advancing one meter."

Asked whether people were able to leave their underground shelters where they have been hiding for days with little food and water, Khanshour said: "We are still underground and dying." Khanshour added that he is hiding with 45 others in a shelter and they have been surviving on rice, crushed wheat and pasta.

The Observatory said Sunday's airstrikes and shelling killed eight people and wounded dozens in several areas in eastern Ghouta. The opposition's Syrian Civil Defence, also known as White Helmets, said the six were killed in the towns of Saqba, Beit Sawa, Arbeen and Hammouriyeh.

State news agency SANA said insurgents breached the truce by firing 15 shells Sunday on government-held areas on the edge of Ghouta.

Dr. Sakhr al-Dimashqi, a surgeon at a Ghouta clinic, told The Associated Press that several shells hit some towns in the suburbs, adding that they received six wounded people at his clinic.

"The shelling today is not as intense as over the past week," he said.

The two largest and most powerful rebel factions in Ghouta, Failaq al-Rahman and Army of Islam issued statements saying they will abide by the ceasefire unless they are forced to fire in self-defence. Both called for the "immediate delivery" of emergency aid.

The resolution excludes members of the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked fighters. Ghouta is also home to a few hundred members of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that the fight against IS and al-Qaida's affiliate will continue, despite what it described as attempts by certain external players to engage "international terrorists and groups of opposition militants joining them to implement plans that are still nurtured to overthrow the legitimate authorities of Syria and dismember the country."

It added that "the terrorists won't get any respite."

Damascus residents said there's more traffic in the streets, compared to previous days and most schools and universities were open on Sunday. They said some private schools were still closed, especially those close to the front lines with Ghouta.

Some residents of the capital said they were unhappy with the truce, adding that they believe the rebels will violate it and that the Syrian army should crush the gunmen outside the capital.

"The army has given them many truces, more than they deserve and the result was more shells," said Damascus resident Abdul-Razzak Khaleifah, 37. "The army has the right to retaliate to defend the homeland and the civilians."

Saturday's vote at the United Nations came after the vote was delayed from Friday. Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia had repeatedly called an immediate ceasefire unrealistic.

In a bid to get Russian support, sponsors Kuwait and Sweden amended the draft resolution late Friday to drop a demand that the ceasefire take effect 72 hours after the resolution's adoption.

After two hours of additional negotiations on Saturday, the Security Council unanimously approved the resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire across Syria "without delay" to deliver humanitarian aid to millions and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

After the vote, many council members urged stepped-up efforts to ensure a ceasefire and get assistance to millions in need.

Russia has been a main backer of Assad since the country's conflict began. In 2015, Moscow joined the war on Assad's side tipping the balance of power in his favour.

In northern Syria, the Observatory and the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV said Turkish troops shelled the Kurdish enclave of Afrin where Turkey and Syrian opposition fighters it backs have been on the offensive since Jan. 20.

The Turkish military and their allies took three more villages from the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia near the town of Afrin on Sunday, according to the Turkey's official news agency. The military announced one Turkish soldier was killed on Saturday, bringing the army's death toll to 33 since the launch of the Afrin operation last month.

The main Kurdish militia, known as YPG, said in a statement that it will abide by the UN ceasefire but will continue fighting as usual against IS.

Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.</s>BEIRUT, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The two major rebel factions in Syria’s eastern Ghouta welcomed on Saturday a U.N. resolution demanding a 30-day truce across the country to allow aid access and medical evacuations.

In separate statements, Jaish al-Islam and Failaq al-Rahman pledged to protect aid convoys that come into the besieged rebel enclave near Damascus. The insurgents said they would commit to a truce, but would respond to any violation by the Syrian government and its allies.

The U.N. Security Council adopted the resolution on Saturday, as one of the deadliest air assaults of the seven-year war pounded eastern Ghouta this week. (Reporting by Ellen Francis, Editing by William Maclean)</s>After days of diplomatic wrangling, the Security Council on Saturday adopted a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria "without delay", to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

The main rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta, where more than 500 people have died since the bombing campaign was launched a week ago, welcomed the UN vote and said they would abide by a ceasefire.

Sunday's strikes included two on the outskirts of Douma, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Regime air strikes and artillery have been pounding the enclave since February 18, with at least 520 dead, including more than 100 children, according to the Observatory.
Government forces launch a ground and air offensive in eastern Ghouta despite the adoption of Resolution 2401 by the United Nations Security Council demanding a ceasefire in part of the area.