美国有线新闻 CNN 叙利亚猛轰东古塔致数百人死亡

 

First report takes us to the Middle East, where the fight is getting more intense in one of the last parts of Syria that's controlled by rebels who are fighting the government. Eastern Ghouta is a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital, almost 400,000 people live there, and eastern Ghouta has been completely surrounded by Syrian government forces for more than four years. It's supposed to be what's called a de-escalation zone, meaning an area where civilians¹ can live without being targeted by anyone fighting in Syria's civil war.

But observes in the region say that shelling and a series of airstrikes by the Syrian government have killed at least 250 civilians in the past 48 hours and turn parts of eastern Ghouta to rubble². A hospital director there says the airstrikes are nothing new, that they have been going on for years, but that residents have not seen anything like the violence of recent days. So, why was eastern Ghouta targeted?

The Syrian government says rockets and mortars³ were launched from there on Tuesday and that they killed five civilians and injured 20 others.

Government media say the Syrian army responded with, quote, precise strikes that targeted rocket launchers and defensive⁴ positions of the armed rebels there.

The ISIS terrorist group has also played a part in Syria's civil war but it's lost a lot of ground in the country over the past year and Syrian government forces supported by Russia are making a major effort to take over the remaining areas that are held by rebels.

The civilians who live in eastern Ghouta say they expect the government will launch an offensive on the ground in the days ahead.

The conflict in Syria has been going on since 2011. The United Nations estimates that 400,000 people have been killed and millions have had to leave their homes or get out of the country altogether.

1 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

2 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

3 mortars   

n.迫击炮( mortar的名词复数 )；砂浆；房产；研钵

参考例句：

• They could not move their heavy mortars over the swampy ground. 他们无法把重型迫击炮移过那片沼泽地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Where the hell are his mortars? 他有迫击炮吗？ 来自教父部分

4 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。