Video footage uploaded online purported to show the devastation in Douma.
At least 80 people were killed Sunday in Syria after the regime of President Bashar al-Assad carried out airstrikes in the rebel-held city of Douma, activists monitoring the country's ongoing civil war said.
According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the air raids targeted a busy market place during rush hour in the city, which lies some seven miles outside of Damascus.
More than 250 people were wounded in the strikes, activists said, with the number of casualties expected to rise.
Video uploaded online purported to show the chaotic aftermath of the attacks, with activists sharing images on social media of dead bodies, including those of children, being lined up.
"This is an official massacre that was carried out deliberately," Rami Abdurrahman, head of the SOHR, told the Associated Press.
Abdurrahman said government warplanes fired one missile, then proceeded to fire another when people had gathered in the aftermath to help the injured.
He said some four missiles in total struck the market on what is the first day of the working week in Syria.
Another Douma-based activist, who uses the name Mazen al-Shami, told the AP "the situation is catastrophic," with hospitals full of wounded people being transported by civilian cars due to ambulances being overwhelmed by the number of injured.
Douma has been the scene of regular attacks by government forces in recent months, as the Assad regime struggles to wrestle the city back from rebels who want to overthrow his government.
The SOHR also said that regime helicopters on Sunday dropped barrel bombs on the southwestern city of Daraa, near the Jordanian border, killing at least five people.
The U.N. estimates more than 220,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war since fighting began more than four years ago.
SOURCE: BuzzFeed
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