Beirut, Lebanon (CNN)The war in Syria has exhausted all superlatives. Worst day, worst month, worst year, worst ever. Words fail to describe the destruction of this ancient, beautiful land.
For the past few days, Syrian government warplanes, rockets and artillery have pummeled the area known as Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus. Eastern Ghouta has been under rebel control, and under siege, since 2012.
On Monday alone, the government bombardment killed more than 100 residents, including many children, according to a variety of groups contacted by CNN. The day's death toll exceeded 50 by Tuesday evening.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported Tuesday that rebel rocket and mortar fire from Eastern Ghouta had killed five civilians and wounded 20 in central Damascus. Syrian forces responded to the attacks with "precise strikes," destroying rocket launchers and fortified positions used by the armed groups, SANA said.
The desperate situation, and the near-total absence of any sign that further violence can be avoided, prompted UNICEF, the UN's Children's Fund, to issue a blank statement headed simply, "The war on children in Syria: Reports of mass casualties among children in Eastern Ghouta and Damascus."
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It contained one sentence. "No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones."
At the bottom of the page, an explanatory footnote reads, "UNICEF is issuing this blank statement. We no longer have the words to describe children's suffering and our outrage.
"Do those inflicting the suffering still have words to justify their barbaric acts?"
CNN reached out to officials in Damascus for reaction. They had no words.
According to local tradition, the Ghouta, once a sprawling oasis on the outskirts of Damascus, was the Garden of Eden. When I lived in Damascus many years ago, I regularly went with my parents and their friends for picnics there and remember sitting in the cool shade by bubbling irrigation canals, playing backgammon under trees heavy with fruit.
Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
Medics tend to a baby as a child cries next to them at a makeshift clinic in Douma, Syria, on Thursday, February 23. More than 400 civilians have been killed this week in Syria's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region, according to the head of the region's health department on Friday, February 23. Syrian regime forces have been pounding Eastern Ghouta with shells, mortars and bombs.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
A man rescues a child after a reported airstrike in the rebel-held town of Hamouria on Wednesday, February 21. Syria says it is targeting terrorists in Eastern Ghouta.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
Members of a Syrian civil-defense team rescue a man in Hamouria on February 21.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
A woman and children run for cover after bombing in Hamouria on Monday, February 19.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
An injured child cries as he receives treatment at a makeshift hospital in Hamouria on February 19.
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A man carries an injured victim amid the rubble of buildings.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
A boy waits to receive medical treatment at a field hospital on February 19.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
Injured children are treated at a hospital in Douma.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
A wounded boy receives treatment in Douma following airstrikes on the village of Mesraba.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
A man carries an infant he rescued from the rubble in Hamouria on February 19.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
Injured children are treated at a hospital in Douma.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
Ghaith, a wounded 12-year-old boy, cries as he waits for treatment -- and news of his mother in the operating room -- at a makeshift hospital in Kafr Batna. They were hurt in airstrikes on the town of Jisreen.
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Photos: Airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta
Children cry at a makeshift hospital in Douma.
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A man weeps over his child, who was killed in the Mesraba airstrikes.
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Today, it's perhaps the closest thing to hell on Earth.
Everyone CNN spoke to in Eastern Ghouta believes the government bombardment is a prelude to a major Russian-backed offensive to crush the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. There is absolutely nothing to stop it from happening.
The West, led by the United States under President Barack Obama, half-heartedly backed the effort to topple Assad's regime but didn't have the stomach for it in the end. The West, and its Arab Gulf allies, provided the opposition with just enough weapons to fight the regime but never enough to bring it down.
By the time Russia intervened to save its Syrian ally in September 2015, the United States was too distracted by the war on ISIS. Since then, the government in Damascus has retaken all of the city of Aleppo, and is slowly pushing into the few remaining rebel enclaves, including Eastern Ghouta.
No doubt the so-called international community will express concern over the bloodshed, and that is it. Many more Syrians will die, with words of sympathy ringing in their ears.
