Beirut (AFP) – At least 23 Syrian civilians were killed Saturday in suspected Russian air strikes on a rebel-held town outside Damascus, a monitor said.
The strikes on the rebel district of Duma hit the center of the town where markets are regularly held, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
They appeared to have been carried out by Russian planes participating in an aerial campaign that began on September 30, the Britain-based group said.
Rebels in Duma, which lies in the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, regularly fire rockets into the capital and the area is frequently the target of government air strikes and shelling.
The Observatory said at least six children and seven women were among the dead and that the toll could rise further because of the number of people seriously wounded.
An AFP journalist tried to describe what he saw as he walked around the wreckage site. He said he saw rescue workers trying to put out fires and several vegetable carts that had spilled onto the streets, their wares mixed with the rubble from damaged buildings.
In a field clinic, he also saw a child lay on a bed, a tube taped into the side of his bare and bloodied ribcage as medical workers tried to assess the severity of the wound.
Nearby, a man with a chunk of flesh gouged out of his left leg moaned and held his head as doctors worked on him.
Last month, at least 70 people were killed in a single day of bombing on the town, according to ’Doctors Without Borders’.
And in August, 117 people were killed there in one day of air raids, causing a global outcry.
