(CNN) Nearly 180 people, including 51 children, have been killed in Syria's Eastern Ghouta in just over two weeks, the volunteer White Helmets rescue group said Sunday, as the government steps up its air raids on the country's remaining rebel-held areas.

The death count was announced as more regime strikes were reported over the weekend and as activists posted videos online of rescuers pulling children from the rubble of targeted buildings.

The start of the year has been marked by death and destruction in Eastern Ghouta, an enclave on the outskirts of the capital Damasus.

White Helmets volunteer rescuers carry a girl who was pulled from the rubble in Eastern Ghouta on January 6.

The area is rebel-held but has been besieged by government forces for more than four years. The Syrian government, backed by Russian air power, began an offensive to retake it on December 29 last year. The White Helmets said Sunday that the offensive had involved hundreds of airstrikes, missiles and cluster bombs.

The group said that 177 people had been killed in the latest offensive, and more than 800 civilians, including at least 200 children, had been injured.

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