A new wave of Syrian regime attacks on the western city of Douma
killed at least 34 people Sunday, an opposition activist group said.
Government
forces shelled and launched rockets on the city in the countryside outside
Damascus, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The group said
the death toll is expected to rise, as many of those injured are in critical
condition and there are people missing -- possibly buried under rubble.
For its part,
the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported Sunday that regime forces
destroyed ammunition, a rocket launcher and a cannon in the Damascus
countryside.
Sunday's
violence marks another bloody day in Syria's 4-year-old civil war. What started
as a political protest in 2011 was met by a violent government crackdown, which
then led to an armed uprising and a civil war.
Last year, the
United Nations estimated about 200,000 people -- including thousands of
children -- have been killed in the civil war, though the exact death toll is
likely to be much higher.
Syrian rebels
have been trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has ruled
Syria for more than 40 years. Despite widespread reports of government bombings and even chemical warfare in civilian
areas, the regime has maintained that it is targeting terrorists.
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