40 dead as Syria government hits Damascus

Forty people were killed on Friday when rockets fired by Syrian government forces crashed into a market in a rebel-held area outside Damascus, a monitor said.

“There were 40 people killed and at least 100 wounded in the centre of Douma,” a town on the eastern edges of the Syrian capital, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.

“There is still heavy fire now, with both rockets and mortars,” he said, adding the toll may rise as people were still being pulled out of buildings. An AFP photographer said the attack wounded hospital staff.