UN condemns Syrian regime for slaughtering 100 people in market place airstrikes

The United Nations has condemned Syrian regime airstrikes that killed more than 100 people in a crowded market place near Damascus on Sunday.

The missiles smashed into crowds gathered in the town of Douma, strewing bodies and shredding the ground. Local rescue workers said at least 111 people were killed and more than 240 wounded.

Locals clinics were overwhelmed by the flood of casualties. Follow-up shelling on a local graveyard left many families unable to bury their dead, leaving them no choice but to allow bodies to putrefy in the scorching summer heat.

The airstrike on Douma, some 10 miles northeast of Damascus, was one of the bloodiest single attacks in a four-year-long war that has killed an estimated quarter of a million people and driven a further 10 million from their homes.

On Monday, the UN's humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien, said he was “horrified by the total disrespect for civilian life in this conflict". UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura described the attacks as "unacceptable in any circumstances".

Photographers captured a desperate aftermath. In one image, local residents lay dozens of corpses in the shade; in another, a child stares blankly at the camera, blood seeping down his short-sleeved shirt.

The attack came a day after the area’s largest rebel group, Jaish al-Islam, announced a fresh anti-government offensive in a neighbouring suburb. Douma, one of the first towns to rise up against Mr Assad, has been besieged by regime forces for three years.

Some locals suggested the airstrikes came in retaliation for an attack by Jeish al-Islam on a nearby regime army base on Saturday. Activists and human rights groups told The Telegraph that it likely formed part of a broader strategy of punishing civilians living in opposition-held areas.

Douma's market has been repeatedly been targeted in recent weeks.

“The regime is targeting civilians to turn them against the revolution,” said media activist Bara' Abdul Rahman, saying that fresh air strikes killed another ten people on Wednesday.

Amnesty International condemned the strikes as a form of “psychological warfare” against a struggling population.

The nearby neighbourhood of eastern Ghouta, regularly targeted by government airstrikes, has been under a suffocating siege for nearly two years.

Amnesty International last week accused the government of committing war crimes there, saying its heavy aerial bombardment of the area was compounding misery created by the blockade. It also accused rebels in the area of committing war crimes by firing rockets indiscriminately at Damascus.

On Monday, the organisation’s Syria researcher Neil Sammonds said the new airstrikes were likely intended to make life “ as difficult as possible for people who have not left yet."