At least 46 people were Friday killed in a series of airstrikes by Syrian regime jets against rebel strongholds in the war-torn country, a monitoring group said.
Seven children were among 42 people killed as the result of an air bombing that targeted the towns of Douma, north-east of the capital Damascus, and Eastern Ghouta, east of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Activist Mohammed al-Abdallah, based in Damascus, told dpa that the Syrian jets had dropped “highly explosive barrels” on residential buildings in Douma.
Pictures posted by opposition activists showed buildings in Douma reduced to rubble, with frightened people running for shelter.
Syrian state television, meanwhile, said government troops had “destroyed terrorist cells” in areas on the outskirts of Damascus without specifying exact locations.
In the northern province of Aleppo, at least four civilians were killed and an unspecified number wounded in strikes by regime warplanes against the jihadist-held town of al-Bab for the second consecutive day, the Britain-based Observatory said.
On Thursday, at least 13 civilians were killed in the strikes in al-Bab, a stronghold of the militant Islamic State group.
The Syrian government has recently stepped up air attacks against the al-Qaeda breakaway group, which controls considerable swathes of northern and eastern Syria.
Syrian television Friday said government forces had retaken the town of Halfaya in the central province of Hama from rebels. The claim could not be independently verified.
Hama is home to mostly members of Christian and Alawite minorities, who are loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria’s minority communities are worried about Sunni extremists’ recent territorial advances in the country, where a conflict of nearly four years have claimed the lives of more than 191,000, according to UN data.
Meanwhile, Qatar disclosed that it helped secure the release of 45 Fijian peacekeepers held by al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front in Syria for two weeks.
“The efforts of the State of Qatar led to the successful release of the Fijian soldiers,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement without giving further details.
The United Nations on Thursday announced the release of the peacekeepers, part of the UN Disengagement Observer Force that monitors a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights.
The soldiers were kidnapped on August 28 in the volatile area of Quneitra in Golan where Syrian regime troops and jihadists have been locked in fighting in recent weeks.
Fiji’s interim leader Voreqe Frank Bainimarama hailed the released peacekeepers as heroes.
“They are all healthy, they are in high spirits and they will soon be in contact with their families and loved ones here in Fiji,” Bainimarama added, according the Fiji Times Online website.
“These 45 men are heroes. They kept their cool and showed restraint under the most extreme circumstances imaginable.”
The abduction incident was the third targeting UN peacekeepers in Golan this year. In the previous two incidents, the soldiers were also released unharmed.
GNA
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