Regime bombardment killed nearly 30 people in a rebel enclave near Damascus on Monday, as Syria’s seven-year conflict left civilians paying a heavy price.
Residents across several Syrian battlefronts have reported escalating bombardment and have accused Syrian troops of deploying toxic chemicals against rebel-held zones.
The United States on Monday said there was “obvious evidence” of multiple chlorine gas attacks in recent weeks, including in the opposition-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.
On Monday, dozens of air strikes and artillery fire battered Eastern Ghouta, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Twenty-nine civilians were killed and dozens were wounded,” said the war monitor’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman.
The deadliest raids on Monday hit a market in the town of Beit Sawa, killing 10 civilians including two children.
Another nine civilians, two of them children and one a local rescue worker, were killed in Arbin.