Rebel rockets hit Damascus ahead of visit by Iranian minister

The Observatory said rebels fired a barrage of at least 50 rockets and put the toll at five dead – four civilians and a soldier – with 59 people hurt.

The group, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, added that at least 20 people were injured, with some left in critical condition.

Activists in Darayya, a suburb of Damascus controlled by several rebel factions, reported that the Syrian regime carried out a series of airstrikes using incendiary bombs on August Tuesday, sparking fierce fires.

The air raids hit the towns of Douma, Saqba, Kafr Batna and Hammouriyeh in Eastern Ghouta, a rebel stronghold region outside the capital.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was expected to head for Damascus from Beirut later in the day, according to Iranian state media.

Warplanes sent by the air force loyal to President Bashar al-Assad responded to the rebels’ shelling with strikes on rebel-held areas, killing at least 31 people and wounding more than 120 others. But discussions alone of that plan, which reportedly includes a cease-fire and a “national unity government”, likely won’t pause a conflict that’s killed more than 250,000 people since March 2011.

“A number of citizens, including a woman were killed and others were injured… by terrorist shelling of residential neighbourhoods in Damascus”, state television said, quoting the interior ministry.

The human rights organisation said it had also documented at least 60 aerial attacks on Eastern Ghouta in the first half of 2015 that killed about 500 civilians.

The attacks come amid the new Iranian diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

In Beirut, Hezbollah’s leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah met with Zarif to discuss regional crises, including Syria’s civil war.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station said Nasrallah and Zarif discussed attempts ‘to find solutions in more than one country’.

Meanwhile, Al-Manar and Syrian activists said a 48-hour cease-fire has started in a Syrian town near the Lebanese border and two Shiite villages in northern Syria between Hezbollah fighters and rebels there.

The rebel alliance, which calls itself the Army of Conquest, regularly fires barrages of rockets into the villages, claiming a mission to avenge the offensive on Zabadani.