Opposition activists say at least 40 people are dead after a missile barrage slammed into a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
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Local activists accused forces loyal to Assad of launching the attacks, alleging that the market in a rebel-held area of Douma was intentionally targeted.
The opposition National Coalition said those killed in Douma on Friday morning had been struck by Russian air raids.
Currently, the Syrian reconciliation talks are underway in Vienna to find a way to end the ongoing war in Syria and ease the world’s largest current humanitarian crisis. Global diplomats were meeting on Friday at a peace conference in Vienna, the first to be attended by President Bashar al-Assad’s main ally Iran.
The area is a frequent target of deadly government airstrikes and barrel bombs dropped from helicopters.
At least 89 people, including 17 children, were killed Friday in attacks on Syrian opposition strongholds near Damascus and in the country’s north, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
More than 250,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011.
One senior official said that a first group of forces – possibly a couple of dozen – will go relatively soon to assess the situation and determine which groups on the ground the USA can best work with, including moderate Kurdish and Arab fighters. On Oct.13, as government supporters gathered outside the embassy in a rally to thank Moscow for aiding the Syrian government’s military campaign, shells fell inside the embassy compound.
But no one has provided any clear indication of what the transition process might look like and how long it would take – or if either of the Syrian sides would be ready to support such a plan. Russian Federation and Iran back Assad, but the U.S. and its allies want him ousted.
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Participants described the talks as frank and intense, with only short toilet breaks. A day before the meeting, Saudi foreign minister Adel Jubeir said there is no role for Assad in the political transition.
