Syria President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday that his forces must continue an operation in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, despite mounting pressure to end it.
"The operation against terrorism must continue, while at the same time civilians will continue to have the possibility" to evacuate, Assad told journalists in remarks broadcast on state television.
Assad's forces have seized over a quarter of the enclave on Damascus's eastern edges after two weeks of devastating bombardment, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.