Near the capital, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the opposition activist-run Syrian Press Center said government shelling of rebel strongholds in Douma, in eastern Ghouta, a Damascus suburb, on Saturday killed at least 13 people, including three women and two children.
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At least 35 people, including eight children and five rescue workers have been killed in the Syrian city of Aleppo and its outskirts in attacks carried out by the government forces and the rebels, a monitoring group says.
On Monday, rebel shelling killed at least 19 civilians in government-held districts of Aleppo, according to the Observatory.
The Syrian Civil Defense, which conducts search and rescue operations in rebel-held areas, says the attack took place in the town of Atareb, west of the city of Aleppo, on Tuesday morning.
Five of their own were killed when the White Helmets headquarters in the town of al-Atarib, controlled by rebels, was hit by an overnight air strike, the group said on Twitter.
The Syrian government is accused of dropping indiscriminate barrel bombs on rebel-held neighbourhoods.
On April 24, US President Barack Obama urged warring parties in Syria to return to peace talks and “reinstate” a ceasefire and announced the next day that the United States would send an additional 250 special forces troops to Syria to support local militias in the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government.
“Kerry said that the Russians might be moving on Aleppo because members of the Al Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda, were mixed throughout parts of the region, and that they were terrorists not party to the cease-fire”.
The fighting in Aleppo marks a violent end to the temporary truce; the parks are empty, the streets mostly deserted, and residents counting the explosions and mourning the rising death toll as the government and rebels vie for control of the city.
The opposition cited the dire humanitarian situation and ongoing Syrian army attacks when it walked out of negotiations in Geneva last week, saying it needed a “pause”.
The Observatory group also indicated regime air strikes and insurgent bombardments in Aleppo have killed dozens of people in the past several days.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is due to give a progress report to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, when the talks are scheduled to go into recess.
At least 20 people are reported dead today in the back-and-forth shelling involving government forces and opposition in Syria’s largest city.
The Civil Defence corps work as first responders in opposition-held territory where medical infrastructure has broken down.
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Syria’s conflict began with mostly peaceful protests in 2011, but a brutal government crackdown and the rise of an armed insurgency eventually plunged the country into a full-blown civil war.
