Syria regime’s air strikes ‘unacceptable,’ UN envoy says

Water cuts have been used before in the Syrian civil war, with Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial centre, most affected.

Coalition head Khaled Khoja said the Assad government’s “boldness in committing massacres against civilians for 53 consecutive months depends on global silence that amounts to complicity”.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said the air raids killed at least 100 and wounded about 300, adding that rescue workers are digging through the rubble in search of survivors. Another 35 were buried on Monday, and the death toll was over 100, he said.

“It was really hard to identify the bodies of the martyrs”. “We do not have any presence in the residential areas”, spokesman Islam Alloush said.

“By repeatedly bombing heavily populated areas in a series of direct, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks as well as by unlawfully besieging civilians, Syrian government forces have committed war crimes and displayed a sinister callousness towards Eastern Ghouta’s civilians.”

The 15-member council unanimously voted in favor of UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura’s new push for peace talks, although non-permanent member Venezuela voiced reservations.

De Mistura said in a statement Monday that hitting crowded civilian markets is “unacceptable”.

“I am absolutely horrified by the total disregard for civilian life by all parties in this conflict”, he said.

The air strikes and fighting raging elsewhere across Syria underscore huge challenges facing a new diplomatic effort to advance potential solutions to the conflict.

Lavrov last week hosted Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister and representatives of the Syrian opposition, who all insisted Assad must go.

It called for a political transition, but did not find a consensus concerning the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“The strikes [targeting civilians] appeared to have been launched in retaliation for the capture of an army base in a nearby suburb a day earlier by the Islamic Army rebel group, which enjoys strong support in Douma”, reports The Associated Press (AP).

A Syrian military source says the air force had been targeting the headquarters of the rebel group, Jaysh al-Islam.

Syrian state TV reported that attackers shelled the government-held neighbourhood of Hamadaniyeh in Aleppo, killing 10 and wounding 17 on Monday.