LATEST: Regime Claims Advance in Counter-Offensive South of Damascus
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UPDATE 1300 GMT: Activists say the death toll from the Assad regime’s latest attacks on the Damascus suburb of Douma is more than 100, with hundreds wounded.
Some days I truly hate the world. 100+ dead in #Douma today. #HowManyMore? #Syria pic.twitter.com/r4yuPSv0R8
— Lina Sergie Attar (@AmalHanano) February 10, 2015
A reliable source explains why the initial toll from the Local Coordinating Committees of Monday’s deaths was so low: “The attacks were so intense that not even the LCC can keep up.”
Videos and images, many too graphic to post, testify to the deaths and carnage. A pro-opposition website is collecting footage of some of the dead before they are buried.
Jaish al-Islam — which has twice carried out mass launches of rockets against military targets in Damascus, in retaliation for the bombardment of Douma and other areas — has promised a “painful” response to the “criminals”:
سيكون الرد مؤلما للمجرمين
اللهم انصرنا
#دوما_تباد
— النقيب إسلام علوش (@islamdamas1980) February 10, 2015
The Assad regime sustained its bombing of rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma on Monday, killing another 23 people in and the town.
Syrian warplanes have pounded Douma, northeast of the capital, for months in an attempt to break the opposition. In the last week, the attacks have escalated: at least 122 people have been killed in the area since Thursday.
Rebels counter-attacked last Thursday by firing more than 100 rockets at military targets in Damascus and said they would resume if the airstrikes continued; however, there has been no sign of a response to the ongoing strikes.
Aftermath of an attack:
A father searches for his child in the rubble:
(Photo: Mohammad Badra)
Regime Claims Advance in Counter-Offensive South of Damascus
State media says that the Syrian military has succeeded in a counter-attack south of Damascus, taking Deir Addas and the hilltop of Tal Mseih overlooking the town.
State news agency also said Syrian forces took al-Danaji, a village of about 1,000 people. Rebels claimed that Hezbollah and Iranian fighters led the attacks.
Opposition sources had said that they held off the regime offensives in Daraa and Quneitra Provinces. They said Monday that they had withstood the regime attack on Deir Addas and Kafr Shams. They claimed to have destroyed about 10 tanks and inflicted heavy losses on the Syrian Army, Hezbollah, and militias.
See Syria Daily, Feb 9: Regime’s Assault on Damascus Suburb of Douma Continues
Insurgents have been advancing through Daraa Province in the past month, taking a series of regime bases and villages.
In Quneitra Province, opposition fighters try to hold back regime forces at At Tayhah, west of Kafr Shams (see map):