Syrian jets target market, kill civilians

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committess group said government forces fired more than 11 missiles at a market, killing at least 40.

A former German rapper who participated in propaganda videos for Islamic State and sought to lure foreigners to the militant group has been killed in a US airstrike in Syria, two USA officials said on Thursday.

SOHR head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that at least 100 people had been wounded in the attack and that people were still being pulled from destroyed buildings.

Syria’s 4-year-old civil war has killed more than 250,000 people and driven more than 10 million from their homes.

He said the attacks “indicated an attempt to undermine the efforts to stop the violence” during the Vienna meeting.

Men react as they carry the remains of dead people at a damaged site hit by missiles fired by Syrian government forces on a busy marketplace in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus, Syria October 30, 2015.

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to deploy a small number of special operations forces to Syria to advise moderate rebels, USA sources said, a step he has long resisted to avoid getting dragged into another war in the Middle East. He said the attack today took place as residents gathered at the market, leaving corpses piled on top of each other. Why did you go?

A local activist, speaking to Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity, said Douma was under heavy attack starting Friday morning.

Blood-soaked bodies lay crumpled underneath tables, as a young boy in a sky-blue sweater stood on the sidelines, looking stunned. How long Assad would stay in power under the the plan was nonetheless unclear.