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Update: Syrian air strikes kill 40 in rebel-held Damascus countryside

Xinhua, August 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

At least 40 people were killed and more than 120 others wounded in Syrian airstrikes against rebel-held areas east of the capital Damascus on Wednesday, a monitor group reported.

The Syrian warplanes struck the rebel-held areas of Hamoriyeh, Douma, and Saqba in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus on Wednesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said the death toll will likely rise due to the large number of critically wounded people.

Meanwhile, other activists have posted online footages purporting to show the aftermath of the Syrian airstrikes at one of the marketplaces in Douma, with scenes of destructions while locals are moving the dead bodies and wounded people.

The airstrikes came apparently against the backdrop of an intense mortar and rocket attack by the rebels on the capital earlier on Wednesday.

At least 12 people were killed and 60 others injured, some in critical conditions, when over 50 Katyusha rockets and mortar shells battered several districts of Damascus.

Mortars and rockets bombarded Damascus districts surrounding the vicinity of the Russian Embassy, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, as well as areas of the capital's old quarter, according to SANA and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The shelling started on Wednesday, prompting the Syrian air force to escalate air raids on rebel-held areas from which the mortars were fired, witnesses said.

The attack is the latest in a series of rebels' shelling against the capital, in apparent retaliation to the Syrian army's operations against militants in the city of Zabadani, northwest of Damascus, along with the western suburb of Daraya.

Earlier on Saturday, rebels fired multiple mortars into the capital districts, killing 11 people, including a woman and three children, according to SANA. Endit