The Syrian regime's bombardment of rebel-held eastern Ghouta has now claimed the lives of more than 1,000 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based monitor said at least 219 children were among the 1,031 civilians who had died in the region since Bashar al Assad's government launched its latest assault three weeks ago.

More than 4,350 have been wounded.

The local council of Douma, in eastern Ghouta, issued an urgent "distress call" on Saturday to international organisations.

Image: Eastern Ghouta used to provide Damascus with food but now it is starving

It said: "The bomb shelters and basements are full, and people are sleeping in the streets and in public gardens.


"For three days, it has been hard to bury the dead because of the intense bombing on the cemetery," it added.

Rebel-held eastern Ghouta is very close to Syria's capital and has been the subject of a Government siege since the country's civil war began in 2012.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has described the city as "hell on Earth", while the UN's human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein blamed the Syrian regime for orchestrating an "apocalypse".

'The sound of war is constant in Ghouta'

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) said that a road between Douma and western town of Harasta has been cut off by government troops.

The central town of Misraba has also been captured.

Misraba is along a major road that links the northern city of Douma with the large town of Harasta, in the west.

"Regime forces have therefore divided eastern Ghouta into three parts - Douma and its surroundings, Harasta in the west, and the rest of the towns further south," SOHR said.

Children 'waiting to die' in Ghouta

A spokesman for one of the rebel groups, however, told Reuters that neither Harasta nor Douma were cut off.

Since 18 February, government troops have taken control of half the region, one of the last held by rebels.

Before the war, eastern Ghouta provided a good portion of the Damascus' food.

Syria: Rescued boy calls for mother

Now it is a region with Syria's highest childhood malnutrition levels, with the UN describing the situation as "the deliberate starvation of civilians as a method of warfare".

Years of conflict, siege and bombing have brought shortages of food and medication and, while some food is still grown locally, the prices are out of reach of many residents.

Around 400,000 people are thought to still live in the area.