Syria's Eastern Ghouta, under siege since 2013

Beirut:  Syria's ruined rebel holdout region of Eastern Ghouta, where violence has ramped up in recent weeks, has been besieged since 2013, suffering attacks and malnutrition.
Here is a summary of what has happened in the area, home to around 400,000 people:

A man kisses the body of his child ahead of his funeral in Zamalka near Damascus on February 5, 2018 following airstrike.  AFP / Amer Almohibany

Battle for Damascus
Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels launch an attack on the capital Damascus from its suburb of Ghouta in July 2012, more than a year after the start of an uprising against the regime.
After a week of fighting, the regime asserts control of most of Damascus, but parts of its suburbs fall into rebel hands.
Fighting flares again at the end of 2012 as the rebels set up base in Eastern Ghouta.
The area becomes the target of regular bombings and artillery strikes; markets, schools and hospitals are hit.
From 2013 Eastern Ghouta is totally under government siege.

Children are seen near rubble after an air raid in the besieged town of Douma in eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria, February 6, 2018. Reuters/ Bassam Khabieh

Sarin gas
In August 2013, hundreds of people including many children are killed in a chemical attack on Eastern Ghouta and another rebel bastion near Damascus, Moadamiyet al-Sham.
The opposition blames President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which denies involvement.
Washington also squarely accuses the Syrian government of responsibility, saying more than 1,400 people, including 426 children, were killed.
US and French retaliatory strikes are averted only after a last-gasp agreement between the US and regime supporter Russia that Syria's chemical weapons arsenal will be destroyed.
A UN report concludes days later that the use of sarin gas had been proved "unequivocally and objectively".

Syrians react near a badly injured person following regime strikes on the besieged rebel-held enclave of Kafr Batna near Damascus on February 6, 2018 in which 35 civilians were killed.  AFP / Amer Almohibany

Malnutrition
In 2016, UN humanitarian operations chief Stephen O'Brien says nearly one million Syrians are under siege, including in Eastern Ghouta, in a "deliberate tactic of cruelty".
Following the release of shocking images of severely malnourished children in Eastern Ghouta, the United Nations in October 2017 condemns "the deliberate starvation of civilians as a method of warfare".
The following month, UNICEF says childhood malnutrition levels in the region are the highest recorded in Syria since the war began.
A survey in November showed that 11.9 percent of children under five were suffering from acute malnutrition, compared with 2.1 percent in a similar survey in January, it says.
Once an important producer of food, Ghouta has been ravaged, with buildings and roads in ruin and costs soaring.
While some food is still grown locally, or smuggled in, humanitarian access to the region has been limited despite regular appeals from aid agencies.
The United Nations says in late November that 500 people, including children with complex medical issues, need urgent evacuation from Eastern Ghouta.
In December, 29 patients in critical condition are evacuated from the enclave in a controversial swap deal between the regime and rebels.
 

A boy is seen taking pictures after an air raid in the besieged town of Douma in eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria, February 6, 2018. Reuters/ Bassam Khabieh

'De-escalation zone' bombed
Eastern Ghouta is in May 2017 agreed as one of four "de-escalation" zones under a deal between Russia, Iran and Turkey, but the government maintains its blockade and renews bombardment in mid-November.
In early 2018, violence ramps up in Eastern Ghouta. In January chlorine is suspected of having been used on two occasions in munitions launched by the regime in the region.
On February 6 United Nations war crimes investigators say they are investigating reports that chemical weapons have been used in Saraqeb in Idlib and in Douma in Eastern Ghouta.