SYRIA

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY children are feared to have been killed in bloody Syrian air attacks on a rebel-held enclave near Damascus.

Bashar al-Assad’s warplanes pounded the eastern Ghouta district earlier this week for five consecutive days, turning it into a “hell on earth” according to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres.

As the UN pleaded for a ceasefire to prevent a “massacre”, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 368 people, including 150 children, had been killed since last Sunday night.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, visiting neighbouring Lebanon, said Britain was considering extending its commitment to resettle 20,000 vulnerable refugees from the brutal Syrian civil war.

Concern is growing that Russia has deployed a new stealth fighter to Syrian for weapons testing. Footage appeared to show two Su-57 fifth-generation jets landing at Russia’s Khmeimim air base in the country. The killing machine – which is yet to be tested in combat – is difficult to track on enemy radars – and is capable of autonomously assessing battlefield situations before striking targets with its deadly weaponry.

Map of Damascus locating the besieged rebel enclave in Eastern Ghouta.

The deployment of the aircraft would represent the latest the high-tech military system Russia has exhibited in Syria. The Kremlin has been accused of using the war-ravaged nation as a weapons-testing playground.

A Royal Navy warship has, once again, been forced to escort three Russian warships as they travelled through the English Channel on their way back from the region.

Russian spy ship Feodor Golovin, landing ship Alexander Ostrakovskiy and tanker Yelnya had been supporting Russian military operations in Syria.

The deployment of Portsmouth-based HMS Mersey and a Wildcat helicopter from RNAS Yeovilton is the third time in two months that the Royal Navy has been scrambled to keep a watch on Russian vessels passing the UK.

In Lebanon Miss Rudd said 10,538 people from the Syrian war zone have already been granted refuge under a government scheme and the UK would reach its target of bringing in 20,000 by 2020.

The Home Secretary said she was already holding talks about what would follow when the target was met. She failed to rule out the option of bringing in more refugees, although other ways of helping – such as providing support in the region – could also be likely.

The Home Secretary said: “I am consulting with stakeholders and engaging with other departments to decide what we should have to replace that after 2020. I am going to make sure we have something post-2020 but I’m not sure yet what shape it is.”

World leaders have ramped up the pressure for an urgent ceasefire in Syria.

The UN Security Council was expected to vote on a resolution, called for by Sweden and Kuwait, ordering a ceasefire to allow relief agencies to deliver vital aid and evacuating the sick and wounded from besieged areas.

A spokesperson for Syrian Civil Defence, a search-and-rescue group, said eastern Ghouta was being targeted for “extermination”, adding: “This is a war against civilians. The civil defence is being targeted as they rescue women and children.”