Footage shows devastation after deadly Syrian air strikes

Syrian opposition leaders and their foreign backers have insisted that President Bashar al-Assad should not have any role in a future government, something that the Assad government had rejected.

The Syrian government subsequently surrendered its stocks of banned chemical weapons for destruction under OPCW supervision.

The death toll from Syrian government airstrikes on a rebel-held town near Damascus on Sunday has reached at least 111 people, with hundreds more injured, according to local rescue workers.

“The people gathered after the first strike and then the other strikes followed one after another”, explaining that many of those who were injured “are in a critical condition”.

A Syrian military source said the air force attacks on Sunday on Douma and the nearby area of Harasta targeted an insurgent group, Islam Army, and were a response to recent attacks on nearby government-held areas.

Stephen O’Brien, who took up his post in May, also condemned Syrian air strikes that killed almost 100 people outside the capital during his visit, saying actions by all sides fighting in the four-year conflict were “unacceptable”.

In a statement released by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, O’Brien appealed “to each and every party to this protracted conflict to protect civilians and respect global humanitarian law”. However, O’Brien said, “I remain extremely concerned for the welfares of the 4.6 million people stuck in hard-to-reach and besieged areas”.

The AFP photographer described the attack as the worst he had covered in Douma, which lies in the rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta.

“Horrific pictures, many too graphic to be shown, show the scene of devastation after the bombings, with lifeless bodies – including those of children – lined up on the bloodstained floor of a makeshift clinic”, reports Daily Mail.

Two young boys sat on a stretcher with blood drying on their faces as they awaited treatment, one resting as though exhausted while the other cried.

‘They went early to the cemetery to begin the burials, ‘ he said. “Gravediggers have had to create a mass grave that is four layers deep to accommodate the dead”.

At least 82 people were killed in Syrian regime air raids yesterday on a town outside Damascus, a monitor said, as the UN’s top humanitarian chief held talks with government officials.

Amnesty accuses Syrian Government forces of carrying out at least 60 aerial attacks on Eastern Ghouta between January and June this year, which killed around 500 civilians.

“The preliminary information suggests most of the dead are civilians”, he added.

Douma-based activist Baraa Abdul-Rahman said the streets there were empty and most people were staying indoors.

But it also said the global community s failure to respond to such atrocities contributed to the violence.

The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, a leading group of opposition activists, denounced the political rhetoric following the attack.

Syria’s respectful war slaughtered more than 250,000 individuals, as indicated by the United Nations.