Death toll rises to 96 in Syria’s air raids
Beirut: The toll in a deadly series of Syrian government air raids on a rebel-held town outside Damascus rose to 96 people early this morning, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime warplanes yesterday had conducted at least 10 air strikes on Douma, most of them hitting a popular marketplace.
“The toll documented by the Observatory has risen to 96 people, including at least two women and four children,” the Britain-based monitoring group said early today.
It said another 240 people were wounded in the strikes, some of whom were in critical condition.
The Local Coordination Committees, a grassroots network of anti-regime activists, said overnight that at least 105 people had been killed in Douma, which lies in the opposition bastion of Eastern Ghouta.
The deaths came as the UN’s new Humanitarian Chief, Stephen O’Brien, visited Syria for the first time since his appointment in May.
O’Brien met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and expressed a willingness to work with the government to alleviate humanitarian suffering, state media said.
