Women loyal to President Assad in a besieged region of Damascus are being paraded in metal cages in the hope of preventing further air-strikes raining down on a stricken suburb of the Syrian capital.

Almost 500 Alawites - male and female - have been rounded up by Army of Islam militants and are now being held captive in the cubed jails mounted on the back of flat-bed trucks and pick-ups.

The city of Douma has been pulverised by daily attacks by Russian and Syrian bombing raids.

Women loyal to President Assad in a besieged region of Damascus are being paraded in metal cages to prevent further air-strikes raining down on a stricken Syrian suburb

Almost 500 Alawites - male and female - have been rounded up by Army of Islam militants and are now being held captive in the cubed jails mounted on the back of flat-bed trucks and pick-ups

However, the locals see this extreme retaliation as the only way of ensuring the airborne attacks are ended - as it would mean President Assad targeting his own supporters.

At least 100 cages are now being used to ferry the hostages around the city, in the Eastern Ehouta region.

Videos of the trucks have been shared on YouTube and clearly show terrified women helpless inside the thick metal fencing.

Local rebel groups see this extreme retaliation as the only way of ensuring the airborne attacks are ended - as it would mean President Assad targeting his own supporters

At least 100 cages are now being used to ferry the hostages around the city, in the Eastern Ehouta region

Videos of the trucks have been shared on YouTube and clearly show terrified women helpless inside the thick metal fencing

Panicked men are also seen asking to be released from their enclosures.

However, the rebel groups continue to parade the trapped hostages, driving through streets where dozens of buildings have been reduced to rubble by bombing campaigns.

One woman, Mervat Ali, from Qardaha, can be heard saying: 'We wish that the Russian warplanes never shell civilians again.

'We are experiencing fear here with the people.'

Humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have confirmed that at least 70 people were killed and 500 injured in a series of horrific air-strikes against Douma on Friday.

Panicked men are also seen asking to be released from their enclosures, with up to ten squeezed in to each of the cages at a time

Men held hostage in one of the cages hold on to its sides to keep their balance as they're driven through the near demolished city of Douma

Human Rights Watch slammed the latest action by rebels on the ground, alleging that similar caging tactics were used in the Shia village of Fue, in the north of the country, last month

The group's principal hospital was also hit in the attack, with a further six people killed by shelling on Monday.

Strikes against Douma killed 550 people during their peak in August. More than 120 of those who died were children.

Human Rights Watch slammed the latest action by rebels on the ground, alleging that similar caging tactics were used in the Shia village of Fue, in the north of the country, last month.

Middle East director Nadim Houry told The Times: 'Two wrongs do not make a right.

'You can't protect civilians by endangering other civilians.'