Red Crescent paramedics evacuate wounded people in Damascus, capital of Syria, on April 7, 2018. Five civilians were killed and 30 others wounded Saturday by the rebels' mortar shells amid intensifying military showdown in Damascus' Douma district, according to the state news agency SANA. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)
DAMASCUS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Five civilians were killed and 30 others wounded Saturday by the rebels' mortar shells amid intensifying military showdown in Damascus' Douma district, according to the state news agency SANA.
The mortar shells fired by the Islam Army in Douma in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of the capital slammed several neighborhoods on Saturday, prompting the army to respond to the fire sources in Douma.
The sound of shelling was clearly heard in the capital, which has seen a lull of the blind mortar attacks after the rebels withdrew from other parts of Eastern Ghouta late last month.
Douma was supposed to witness a similar destiny as other areas in the Eastern Ghouta, where 43,000 rebels and their families withdrew under a deal with the government toward rebel-held areas in northern Syria.
Three batches of the Islam Army and families withdrew from Douma recently, but as the fourth batch was preparing to leave, the agreement in Douma, which was mediated by Russia, collapsed amid reports of new demands by the Islam Army.
The Islam Army mainly demanded to remain in Douma with its weapons, while the Russians demanded the rebel group to hand over heavy weapons and allow the formation of a police force in that district supervised by the Russians.
The negotiations seemed to have reached a dead end with renewed mortar attacks on Damascus, and a wide-scale military offensive against Douma.
A day earlier, two people were killed and 20 others wounded by the rebels' mortar attack on Damascus.
