![Affected babies receive medical treatment after Assad regime forces conduct allegedly poisonous gas attack on Sakba and Hammuriye districts of Eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria on 7 March, 2018 [Dia Al Din Samout/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2018_03_07-Victims-of-allegedly-gas-attack-receive-treatment-in-Eastern-Ghouta20180308_2_29110087_31436934-.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The UN’s Independent Commission of Inquiry has characterised the siege imposed by the Syrian regime on eastern Ghouta as “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
The commission said in a report released on Wednesday that the Syrian regime had used barbaric tactics against civilians in eastern Ghouta. It added that residents in the area were subjected to the longest suffocating siege in modern history, and that they suffered great psychological and physical pain as a result of the attacks by the regime and its allies.
Furthermore, said the UN body, the regime led by Bashar Al-Assad intensified its air and ground attacks on eastern Ghouta during the period from February to April this year. It pointed out that people had been left to die, despite the possibility of them being saving.
Read: Death toll rises to 85 in Syria East Ghouta chemical attack
