Syrian government forces and rebels on Saturday intensified tit-for-tat attacks on the Syrian capital Damascus and its outskirts as the government was pressing on with a military offensive to retake the last opposition pocket near the city.
At least eight civilians were killed on Saturday in intense air bombardment by the government on Douma, the last town under rebel control in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported.
The latest fatalities bring to 48 the number of civilians who have been killed in the town since Friday when the Syrian military started a major campaign on the town shattering 10 days of calm there, the Britain-based watchdog said.
Government forces have seized at least 50 farms in the vicinity of Douma in the fight against the rebel Jaish al-Islam rebel faction that controls the town, according to the Observatory.
Supported by airpower from allied Russians, Syrian forces have stepped up attacks on Douma in an attempt to cement their control over long-besieged Eastern Ghouta, the monitor said.
Rebels have repeatedly fired shells from Eastern Ghouta at government-controlled areas in and around Damascus, the seat of power for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Observatory said at least 15 civilians had been killed by shelling targeting the centre and suburbs of Damascus during the past 24 hours.
Syria's state news agency SANA said the bombardment was in response to shelling by Jaish al-Islam rebels on residential areas in and around Damascus.
SANA reported that at least six civilians were killed on Saturday as a result of the shelling.
In recent weeks, government forces have retaken most of Eastern Ghouta through a combination of ground assaults and Russia-brokered evacuation deals.
Some opposition groups have condemned these evacuations as forced displacements.
Eastern Ghouta has been besieged by forces loyal to al-Assad for more than four years.
Should the government recapture Eastern Ghouta, it would deal the harshest blow to the rebels since December 2016, when al-Assad's forces regained full control of the northern city of Aleppo following a Russian-backed campaign.
In the province of Aleppo, a bomb went off in a rebel-held town on Saturday, killing at least eight civilians, local activists reported.
The explosion took place near the Great Mosque in the town of al-Bab in the Aleppo countryside, they added.
Online footage showed a fire and a column of smoke purportedly billowing from the site of the explosion.
So far, there has been no claim of responsibility.
