Forty people were killed on Friday when rockets fired by the Syrian Government forces crashed into a market in a rebel-held area outside Damascus, a monitor said.
“There were 40 people killed and at least 100 wounded in the centre of Douma,” a town on the eastern edges of the Syrian capital, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
“There is still heavy fire now, with both rockets and mortars,” he said, adding that the toll was expected to rise as people were still being pulled out of damaged buildings.
Rebel-held Douma lies in Eastern Ghouta, the largest Opposition stronghold in Damascus province. Govern-ment airstrikes on Thursday hit a market and a hospital, killing at least nine people, the Observatory said.
An AFP photographer at the scene said Thursday’s attack had wounded hospital staff, limiting the treatment available for the wounded on Friday. He said the attack took place as residents gathered at the market, leaving corpses piled on top of each other.