"All the terrorists have left Douma, the last of their strongholds in eastern Ghouta," announced the official state-run Syrian news agency SANA in 2018, quoting an army spokesperson, who used the term “terrorists” in the regime way to refer to rebels and dissidents. Eastern Ghouta had been "completely eradicated of terrorism," added the spokesman in a statement broadcast on television.

The reality is very different; according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the heavy fighting and devastating bombing in Douma killed more than 1,700 civilians.