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Syrian civil war: Russian jets suspected of killing at least 20 people after bombing residential buildings near Damascus

At least four bombs also wounded more than 40

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The Independent Online
Footage reportedly shows rescue workers searching through rubble

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Suspected Russian jets have killed at least 20 people, including 11 women and a child, and wounded dozens more in bombing raids on a besieged rebel enclave east of the Syrian capital, residents and a war monitor said.

At least four bombs flattened the buildings in the town of Misraba, wounding more than 40 people, they said.

Meanwhile, at least ten people were killed in aerial strikes in nearby towns in the last rebel stronghold near the capital.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in Britain, said 11 women and a child were among the dead in the strike in Misraba.

The Observatory said the death toll is expected to rise as some of the wounded are in a critical condition. 

Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling

Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling

  • 1/11

    Karim was injured twice from bombings on Eastern al-Ghouta, rebel-held Douma, Syria. He lost an eye, as well as his mother in the government shellings.

    EPA

  • 2/11

    Activists worldwide launched a campaign in solidarity with Karim as a symbol for the besiegement of Eastern al-Ghouta

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 3/11

    After spending 10 days at a hospital Karim Abdul Rahman was discharged to his house, in which another bombing led to a shrapnel to injure his skull.

    EPA

  • 4/11

    Many people in the rebel-held town of Douma in Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta region, have joined in

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 5/11

    A manon the street poses covering one eye

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 6/11

    Karim's aunt has been caring for him

    EPA

  • 7/11

    Children in Syria have joined in the campaign

    AFP/Getty

  • 8/11

    A girl poses covering one eye with her hand in the rebel-held town of Douma

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 9/11

    A man poses covering one eye

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 10/11

    As part of a campaign in solidarity with a baby boy, Karim, a child poses covering one eye with his hand

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 11/11

    This combination of pictures shows Syrians covering one eye with their hands in the rebel-held town of Douma

    AFP/Getty Images

Video footage posted by activists on social media showed rescue workers pulling women and children from the rubble. The footage could not be independently confirmed.

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Backed by Russian strikes, government forces have escalated military operations against Eastern Ghouta in recent months, seeking to tighten a siege that residents and aid workers say is a deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war, a charge the government denies.

The rebel assault aims partly to relieve that pressure.

Jets have pounded rebel-held Harasta when rebels this week overran a major base in the heart of the enclave which residents say the army uses to pound residential areas.

Vladimir Putin meets Syrian president Bashar al-Assad

The United Nations says about 400,000 civilians besieged in the region face "complete catastrophe"€ because aid deliveries by the government were blocked and hundreds of people who need urgent medical evacuation have not been allowed outside the enclave.

Russia rejects opposition and human rights groups' accusations its jets have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians since its major intervention two years ago that turned the tide in favour of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Scores of hospitals and civil defence centres have been bombed in what the opposition said is a "scorched earth policy" to paralyse life in rebel-held areas.

Moscow asserts it only attacks hardline Islamists.