JISREEN: A fourth consecutive day of heavy bombing raids by the Assad regime on the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, has killed more than 40 civilians on Thursday, raising the death toll in the four days of relentless air raids to over 200.
The civilian toll was first reported at nine on Thursday morning but almost immediately began to rise, mirroring previous bloody days in the besieged district.
Wednesday’s strikes hit at least six different locations in Eastern Ghouta, said the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman.
The highest toll was in the town of Jisreen, where eight civilians were killed. An AFP correspondent there said the strikes hit near a school, a market and a mosque.
Vegetable stalls in the market were overturned and damaged, and a motionless body lay outside the mosque. Rescue teams rushed to the district and pulled three children and a woman out of the rubble.
Moayad al-Hafi, a rescue worker, said his team was hit in a double-tap strike as they were pulling bodies out in Jisreen.
“As we were pulling out the children and the dead from under the rubble, they targeted us with five rockets — directly targeting us,” said Hafi, 24.
