Suspected Russian strikes on Douma in November killed 23 Syrian civilians. Dozens were injured, including some who suffered severe wounds.
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An officer from the Douma brand of the Syrian Civil Defence department said the airstrikes were carried out by government forces, Al Jazeera reported.
“One of the airstrikes on Douma hit near a school, killing the school’s principal”, said Observatory head Abdel Rahman. A poisonous gas attack that killed about 1,400 people took place there in 2013.
Fighting on the ground in Syria has intensified even as the worldwide community makes its most serious push yet to restart peace talks between government officials and opposition representatives.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the local Southern Front division of the Free Syrian Army rebel group claimed the death toll was closer to 60 in Douma alone.
The Britain-based Observatory also reported that six people were killed in a barrage of shells fired by rebels in the center of Damascus and its suburbs.
State news agency SANA said three civilians had been killed and at least 30 wounded in mortar attacks targeting residential neighborhoods of Damascus.
Cities and towns across Syria have been witnessing bomb attacks as well as mortar and rocket fire by Takfiri terrorists since a deadly conflict broke out in the country more than four years ago.
The eastern parts of Damascus have seen some of the heaviest fighting, particularly in recent months.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to the United Nations.
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Before his Russian Federation trip, Kerry attended a foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris to compare notes on a conference of Syrian opposition figures held last week in Saudi Arabia.
