New airstrikes hit Damascus suburb day after 45 were killed
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BEIRUT - Syrian government helicopter gunships on Monday struck a suburb of the capital, Damascus, a day after airstrikes in the area killed at least 45 people, activists said as a visiting UN official said the humanitarian situation in the war-ravaged country is "a blot on our collective conscience."
Sunday's barrage - in which government airstrikes and bombardment of several opposition-held eastern Damascus suburbs killed at least 45 people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights - was particularly heavy. It followed volleys of mortar shells fired into Damascus by rebels in the area that had killed three people, including a child, just hours earlier.
On Monday, the UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said he was "deeply saddened" by the uptick in violence Sunday. He spoke to reporters in Damascus at the end of a three-day visit during which he travelled to the central Syrian city of Homs and met with officials in the capital.
"This is a tragic reminder of the urgency of finding a political solution and security a nationwide ceasefire," he said. "Such indiscriminate attacks are unacceptable and we must do our utmost to protect innocent civilians."
There was no immediate word on casualties from Monday's attacks, which targeted the southwestern suburb of Daraya.
