Bombs, Air Strikes Hit Syria after Deadliest Day in Weeks
Two car bombs shook the Damascus region on Tuesday, a watchdog said, a day after nearly 250 people died in fighting and bombings in Syria's worst violence since last month's failed ceasefire bid.
One car bomb exploded before dawn in the city of Mudamiya near the capital, causing injuries and significant damage, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A second rigged vehicle was detonated Tuesday morning in the southern Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, causing damage but no casualties according to the Observatory, which relies on a countrywide network of activists and medics.
The fresh attacks came a day after 50 pro-regime fighters were killed in a suicide car bombing in the central province of Hama and 13 civilians died when a booby trapped car exploded in the upmarket Damascus district of Mazzeh.
On Tuesday, the regime renewed air strikes across the country, dropping two bombs in the heart of Douma northeast of the capital, and hitting targets in the northern province of Aleppo and the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.
Seven civilians died in air strikes on the central town of Houla, the site of a massacre in which 108 people, the majority women and children, were killed in May.
Warplanes also bombarded the northwestern Idlib town of Maaret al-Numan, seized by rebels nearly a month ago, while fighting broke out around the nearby military base at Wadi Daif and near the town of Jisr al-Shughur.
The embattled regime of President Bashar Assad has increasingly relied on its air power to try and fight back rebel gains on the ground.
Fighting was also raging in northern commercial hub Aleppo, where two rebels were killed, while another two died in Homs city, the Britain-based Observatory said.
The watchdog gave an initial toll of 30 people -- 14 civilians, 11 soldiers and five rebels -- killed nationwide on Tuesday.
The Observatory says more than 36,000 people have died since the March 2011 outbreak of the Syrian revolt, which began as a peaceful protest movement inspired by the Arab Spring but evolved into an armed rebellion following repression.
Source: Agence France Presse
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