Such indiscriminate attacks are “serious violations of worldwide humanitarian law and constitute war crimes”, says Amnesty.
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Islamist rebels based in nearby suburbs regularly shell Damascus, Assad’s seat of power.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that more than 50 rockets were fired at several central neighbourhoods, killing five people – four civilians and one soldier – and injuring 59 others. Iran has been a major financial and military backer of the Syrian president’s embattled administration.
In a news release on Wednesday Amnesty said the 163,000 people in the region were in an “agonising struggle to survive” and that it had documented at least 60 aerial attacks by the government that had killed some 500 civilians in the first half of 2015 alone.
“While Iranian officials have always stated they are not wedded to individuals in Syria, and that their interest lies in preventing regime implosion, they still don’t see a way of preserving the regime institutional infrastructure without Assad”, said Randa Slim, a director at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
Syria has become the site of a raging proxy war that features government-backed forces, supported by Iran and Russian Federation, facing off against mostly Islamist rebels backed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States and other nations.
It said that at least 120 people were injured. During the night fierce clashes started between the Government and opposition forces.
The cease-fire silenced the guns in the town of Zabadani, as well as villages in Syria’s Idlib province.
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Rebels have long besieged the two towns, forcing the army to bring in supplies via helicopter airlift.
