Syrian activists say at least 80
people have died in government air strikes on a marketplace in the
rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus.
Around 200 people were reportedly injured in the attack.
Government
forces have been regularly attacking Douma and its surrounding areas in
recent months with air strikes and helicopter barrel bombs.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed alongside opposition fighters.
Images of the aftermath of Sunday's strikes show dead bodies lined up on the floor, including some of children.
Unverified
footage uploaded by activists showed a marketplace destroyed, with
surrounding buildings in ruins and vehicles on fire.
The Local
Co-ordination Committees, a network of anti-government activists, said
that rescue workers were digging through the rubble in search of
survivors.
A Douma-based activist told the Associated Press news
agency that the situation was "catastrophic", adding that clinics in the
area were full and many of the wounded were being rushed in civilian
cars to other medical facilities since ambulances were overwhelmed.
Images purporting to show the damage to the marketplace were uploaded to YouTube
The
government strikes are aimed at stopping rebel groups, including the
Islamist rebel group Jaysh al-Islam, from firing rockets from Douma into
Damascus, which is only about 7 miles (11 km) away.
An air strike on Wednesday reported killed at least 37 civilians in Douma, including four children.
The
latest reported strikes coincide with the first visit to the country by
the UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien since he took up the post in
May.
United Nations figures show that over 220,000 people have
been killed and more than nine million displaced in Syrian civil war
since it began four years ago.
The conflict began with a wave of
peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but
by the end of that year had descended into armed confrontation between
the government and armed opposition groups.
The war has seen the
emergence of numerous heavily armed jihadist groups within Syria,
including Jaysh al-Islam, Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda offshoot
al-Nusra Front.
Recently some of the anti-Assad forces have begun
to fight each other, with IS in particular being opposed by other
Islamist factions and by fighters from the Kurdish minority along the
country's borders with Turkey and Iraq.
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