The Syrian government has been accused of massacring at least 82 people after regime airstrikes tore through a town outside Damascus.
More than 200 people were injured in Douma, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, after around 10 strikes targeted a busy marketplace earlier today.
Horrific pictures, many too graphic to be shown, show the scene of devastation after the bombings, with lifeless bodies - including those of children - lined up on the bloodstained floor of a makeshift clinic.
Frantic residents brought in waves of injured, who were treated on chairs, beds and the floor as the clinic overflowed with patients.
Dead bodies were lined up in rows and covered with sheets as medics worked nearby to treat the wounded, among them screaming children.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights - a British-based monitoring group - said most of the dead were civilians.
The group said regime warplanes struck the market with one or two bombs, then swooped back to attack again as people desperately tried to treat the wounded.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said: 'This is a documented massacre.'
The town, in the Eastern Ghouta region, is often attacked by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Just three of the countless attacks in the last six months killed almost 100 people.
A Syrian military source said air force strikes on Douma and nearby Harasta targeted the headquarters of the rebel group Islam Army. The insurgent group attacked government positions in Harasta on Saturday.
The group is one of the most prominent insurgent factions operating near Damascus, the seat of President Assad's power more than four years into the civil war that has killed a quarter of a million people.
The Syrian Civil Defense published the names of 60 people so far killed in the attack, saying many more were yet to be identified.
Amnesty International earlier in the week accused the government of committing war crimes in Eastern Ghouta by bombarding civilian areas with airstrikes.
The group also accused rebels in the area of war crimes for firing rockets indiscriminately at the capital, which is less than 10 miles away.
Today's strikes on Douma came as new United Nations humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien held talks with government officials in Damascus on his first trip to Syria since being appointed.
Mr O'Brien met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and said he was willing to work with the government to alleviate humanitarian suffering in the country.
Close to 12 million people have been uprooted by Syria's conflict, with more than four million becoming refugees and another 7.6 million internally displaced.
On Saturday, Mr O'Brien met the deputy foreign minister and visited the central city of Homs, which is now mostly under government control.
Elsewhere, at least 27 opposition fighters and 15 government soldiers were reportedly killed in battles in Tasneen, in central Homs province, yesterday.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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