BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian airstrikes on a Damascus suburb Saturday killed more than 20 people and wounded dozens in the latest wave of government attacks on the crowded rebel-held area, activists said.
Pesident Bashar Assad’s forces have been pounding Douma from the skies for over a week. The sprawling suburb is home to the Jaysh al-Islam rebel group, also known as Islam Army, which has claimed responsibility in the past for firing rockets on Damascus, seat of Assad’s presidency.
More than 100 people were killed in Douma last Sunday when airstrikes struck a vegetable market and other residential areas during rush hour, marking one of the deadliest such raids of the four-year civil war.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 20 people were killed in the airstrikes Saturday. It said the death toll was expected to rise because many of the wounded were in critical condition. Other groups including the Local Coordination Committees and the Douma Revolution Facebook page put the death toll at 50. Such discrepancies are common in the aftermath of chaotic strikes in Syria.
U.N. officials have condemned the strikes, calling the government’s disregard for civilian life appalling. It was not immediately clear how many civilians were among those killed in Saturday’s airstrikes.