Death toll in air strike nears 100

The Douma Civil Defense team of volunteer search and rescue workers has now documented 95 of the dead by name, a further five that couldn’t be identified and 11 bodies still stuck in the rubble, the group’s local media liaison officer Majid Khalaf told VICE News on Monday.

National Security Council spokesman Ned Price added that the Douma strikes “underscore that the Assad regime has lost legitimacy and that the global community must do more to enable a genuine political transition”.

Activists say that air strikes on a suburb of the Syrian capital have slaughtered more than 50 and injured scores.

“Hitting crowded civilian markets (and) killing nearly 100 of its own citizens by a government is unacceptable in any circumstances”, Mr de Mistura said, repeating calls for the warring sides to urgently start a dialogue towards a political solution.

“It was therefore very much central to the discussions I had with (Syrian) government ministers that we need to have that unimpeded access to all people who are vulnerable and in need”, he said.

The UN Security Council has backed a push for Syrian peace talks in a rare show of unity after widespread condemnation of regime air strikes that killed almost 100 people.

In a statement Monday, de Mistura condemned the government air raids in the eastern Damascus suburb of Douma, one of the deadliest since Syria’s crisis began in March 2011.

“While some of our partners believe that it is necessary to agree in advance that at the end of the transitional period the president will leave his post, this position is unacceptable for Russian Federation”, Lavrov said, without naming Assad.

“I am absolutely horrified by the total disregard for civilian life by all parties in this conflict”. Moscow also said it opposed any pre-negotiated exit of the Syrian president as part of a peace deal.

The violence comes a day after a temporary ceasefire in al-Zabadani collapsed.

The attack also caused property damage in Douma, the main stronghold of the so-called Jaish al-Islam, or the Islamic Army, in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus.

The Syrian military source said Sunday’s air strikes were a response to the insurgent attacks on Damascus.

The Syrian army has discovered a long tunnel underneath a rebel-held eastern Damascus district, the state-run TV reported. It also reported rebel shelling of the coastal city of Latakia, which killed six and wounded 19.