The Observatory said four more civilians died Sunday in strikes on other opposition neighborhoods, and in Aleppo’s western government-held parts, 10 civilians including a woman and two children were killed by rebel rocket fire.
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And a barrage of government airstrikes that began around midday Sunday left at least eight civilians dead.
The Geneva talks aim to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis, allowed for the rise of the Islamic State group and drawn in regional and major powers.
Escalating fighting around Damascus, Aleppo and other towns threatens to shatter the already fragile ceasefire deal between the regime and rebels, which was brokered in late February.
It has since spiraled into a multi-front war that has killed 270,000 people and drawn in regional and world powers. Opposition groups have said reports of a new government offensive on their stronghold in the city would wreck the peace talks.
Frustrated by the increasing violence, the lack of access for desperately needed aid and the failure to secure the release of detainees, Syria’s main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) withdrew from peace talks in Geneva earlier this week.
State-news agency SANA said a child was killed in a rebel shelling outside Damascus. The number of those killed remained unclear, the Observatory’s director said.
“The pilot, called Azzam Eid. was captured after he fell by parachute near the site where his plane crashed east of Damascus”, Amaq Agency said in a statement.
The Turkish army has shelled Syrian government forces stationed in the Latakia province near the Turkish border, the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation said. “There was no attack from the ground”.
Pilot al-Kasaesbeh had been held by ISIS since his fighter jet crashed in ISIS-controlled territory.
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“Bottom line, I plan to continue the proximity talks both at formal level and at technical level until next week, probably Wednesday as originally planned”, said UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura at a press conference in Geneva on the state of the intra-Syrian talks he has been mediating. Mistura added that the death toll was his own estimate, not an official United Nations statistic.
