LATEST: Video — Claimed Downing of Regime Warplane Over Miskan Hanano, Aleppo

THURSDAY FEATURES

UPDATE 2000 GMT: Sources say 11 people have died from the bombardment of Darayya today. Of the dead, five are children and two are women.

The death toll is relatively low, given the number of bombs that fell, because the few civilians are in shelters and basements and some of the ordnance hit empty or evacuated buildings.

A source adds, “Not that the Assad forces can know which buildings are empty — they are shelling civilian neigborhoods not knowing who they target.”

Syria’s military stepped up its weeks-long bombardment of Darayya on Wednesday, dropping more than 20 bombs on the Damascus suburb.

Sources reports that 14 more bombs have fallen today, with residents saying that the shattering effects of the bombardment are like “an ongoing earthquake”.

Regime forces have been trying to take control of the area — connected a vital link between south Damascus and the surrounding province of West Ghouta — but have been unable to mount a successful ground offensive to break the months-long presence of the insurgency.

If insurgents can consolidate their position, they threaten to cut out a regime route to Daraa Province in southern Syria.

There were no specific casualty figures from Darayya, but the Local Coordination Committees said 114 people were killed across Syria on Wednesday, including 21 children and six women.

Of the deaths, 64 were in Aleppo Province, 21 in Damascus and its suburbs, and 16 in Daraa Province.

Video: Claimed Downing of Regime Warplane Over Miskan Hanano, Aleppo

UN Investigator: Regime Fails to Establish Theory That Insurgents Obtained Chemical Weapons

Chief United Nations investigator Ake Sellstrom said on Thursday that Syrian authorities have failed to establish a plausible theory for how the insurgents could have obtained and chemical weapons.

Sellstrom told a specialist publication on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats that it was “difficult to see” how the opposition could have weaponized the toxins.

He said he had asked Syrian authorities several times to back up their claim that insurgents used the weapons, including the multiple attacks on August 21 that killed hundreds of civilians near Damascus:

They have quite poor theories: they talk about smuggling through Turkey, labs in Iraq and I asked them, pointedly, what about your own stores, have your own stores been stripped of anything, have you dropped a bomb that has been claimed, bombs that can be recovered by the opposition? They denied that.

To me it is strange. If they really want to blame the opposition they should have a good story as to how they got hold of the munitions, and they didn’t take the chance to deliver that story.

1000s Gather in Besieged Yarmouk for 1,026 Aid Parcels

Scenes on Thursday from Yarmouk in Damascus, cut off for almost nine months by Syrian forces, where scores of the 18,000 residents have died from starvation:

Graphic video has also been posted of a starving infant.

See A Child’s Message from Yarmouk “We Search Garbage for Food”

Islamic State of Iraq Posts Video from Jarablus

Footage from Jarablus, taken by the Islamic State of Iraq from insurgents earlier this month:

13 Insurgents Killed Amid Regime Attacks in Homs Province and Homs City

Activists report fighting throughout Homs Province, even as the Geneva II conference discusses whether aid can get into the besieged areas of Homs city.

Shaam News Network says 13 Free Syrian Army fighters were killed in a regime assault on Az-Zarah.

The Syrian military is also attacking near the Krak des Chevaliers, a Crusader castle 25 miles west of Homs.

Shaam reports that the regime attacks in Homs city have not paused for the Geneva II talks, with two missiles causing damage in the al-Khamidiya district.