On social media, Syria’s civil defense rescue service published the names of dozens of people who it said were killed in the attack. The air raids struck the main market in Douma throughout rush hour, when tons of of individuals have been out shopping on the 1st working day of the week in Syria, activists stated.
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Graphic footage uploaded by local activists in the aftermath of the attack showed bodies being carried away from a marketplace amid ripped apart buildings and overturned vehicles.
Wrapping-up a three-day visit to Syria on Monday, during which he assessed the impact of intense fighting on recently returned families, Mr. O’Brien reminded journalists that civilians have borne the brunt of this conflict for over four years now, with 220,000 people killed, more than a million injured and almost half of the population displaced.
Denying targeting of civilians, the source said rebel groups had sought to position their headquarters in residential areas.
The attacks come as United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien makes his first visit to Syria in a bid to step up relief efforts for what is now the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
He appealed to all parties to protect civilians and respect worldwide humanitarian law, and also expressed concerns for 4.6 million Syrian “stuck in hard-to-reach and besieged areas”.
The attack by the Syrian government occurred 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the city of Damascus, according to the Huffington Post.
An AFP photographer said residents were trying to bury victims of Sunday’s attack, despite the renewed strikes. “As we have said, Assad has no legitimacy to lead the Syrian people”.
In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States “condemns in the strongest possible terms the Assad regime’s deadly airstrikes” on the Douma market.
At least 82 people were killed in Syrian regime air raids yesterday on a town outside Damascus, a monitor said, as the UN’s top humanitarian chief held talks with government officials.
The Syrian Revolution Network, an online network of activists with more than a million followers, tweeted: “50 markets bombed by Assad regime since the beginning of 2015”.
Mouaffaq Nyrabia, the group’s EU representative, called the attack a “massacre” and likened it to the 1994 shelling of a marketplace in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.
He said the deaths underscored that there was no military solution to the conflict.
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Some information from the Associated Press.
