Airstrike in Syria kills 30 innocent civilians; doubt on Russian jets

Damascus, January 5: A jet plane suddenly started dropping bombs on a residential area in a besieged rebel enclave east of Syria’s capital, Damascus. In this airstrike nearly civilians, including children were killed.

The Britain-based watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of the airstrikes were carried out by Russian jets. There was, however, no immediate confirmation by the Russian military, which is providing air support to government forces fighting rebels.

At least four bombs flattened two buildings in the Eastern Ghouta town of Misraba, in an attack that killed around 20 and wounded more than 40 people, in another incident at Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel enclave near Damascus, at least ten people were killed in aerial strikes in other nearby towns, the Observatory, rescuers and residents said.

A government forces base, which is believed to hold some 250 soldiers, the only one in the region, was surrounded by rebels earlier this week. Syrian state television said "army units had launched an assault to break the siege.

The Observatory, a war monitor based in Britain, said 11 women and a child were among the dead in the strikes in Misraba, which it said were carried out by Russian planes.

Russia rejects Syrian opposition and rights groups’ accusations that its jets have been responsible for deaths of thousands of civilians since its major intervention two years ago that turned the tide in the country’s nearly seven-year-old war in favor of President Bashar al-Assad.