DAMASCUS, Syria, Oct. 30 (UPI) — Dozens of people were killed and hundreds were wounded early Friday when government airstrikes exploded a crowded market and residential neighborhoods in northern and southern Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said forces fired 12 missiles into the market in Douma, a rebel-held town about 10 miles northeast of the national capital. It was reported that President Bashar Assad’s regime carried out the strike.
“This market is at the heart of Douma and supplies everyone here,” a Syrian Civil Defense officer told Al Jazeera. “This is the second time this market has been targeted.”
Artillery fire, mortars and airstrikes continued for several hours afterward, opposition activists said.
Also Friday, others were killed and injured in northern Syria after military forces reportedly launched attacks in Aleppo neighborhoods.
Witnesses and officials said Russian forces are responsible for the attack on Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Friday’s strikes came as foreign officials, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, met at a conference in Vienna to support a U.N.-led diplomatic effort to end the hostilities in Syria that started five years ago.
An agreement from the Vienna conference means the Syrian government and opposition groups can move forward with the process — which is now supported by multiple nations including the United States, Iran and Russia.
However, U.S. and Russian officials remain split on the future of Assad — who is an ally to Moscow and a foe to Washington.
“Countries are meeting in Vienna to decide his fate, and he’s telling them ‘I can kill the Syrian people, no problem,'” opposition activist Yousef Albostany said. “We are hostages of a megalomaniac criminal who wants to defy these countries with our blood.”
Russia has maintained military air support for Assad’s regime in Syria since last month — a point of some contention between Moscow and Washington — to fight Islamic State rebels in the country. While U.S. and Russian officials are united in their goal to defeat the terror group, they do not agree on President Vladimir Putin’s desire to keep Assad in power.
Earlier Friday, it was reported that President Barack Obama has decided to send small operational ground forces to Syria to aid in the fight against ISIS.
The move was described as a shift, rather than an operational change, in the strategy against the militant group.
