THE AGONY OF SYRIA

THE PEOPLE OF GHOUTA HAVE LIVED THROUGH A LOT. As the Damascus suburb joined protests against the regime of Bashar Assad during the Arab Spring, the government cracked down, and rebels took up arms. Regime forces were pushed out of the area in late 2012 and replied with a siege that prevented food, medicine and people from entering or leaving. In August 2013, a chemical-weapons attack on the enclave killed more than 1,400 civilians. In the years that followed, the siege tightened and aerial bombardment continued.

But on Feb. 18, the Assad regime and its Russian allies abruptly ramped up attacks, launching one of the most intense bombing campaigns yet seen in a war that has become a complex patchwork of overlapping global interests. Turkey is fighting Kurdish forces in the north, Iran is building military bases in