Date: Mar 21, 2018
Source: The Daily Star
Both sides suffer significant casualties in Damascus, E. Ghouta
AMMAN, BEIRUT: Syrian TV has raised the death toll from what it describes as a "terrorist" attack on a market in the capital to 35.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya quoted hospital sources in Damascus for the casualty toll from Tuesday's attack on the Kashkol neighborhood.

The death toll would be one of the highest in a single attack by opposition fighters targeting the capital.

Embattled rebels entrenched in a region near Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta frequently fire rockets and mortar shells at the capital. Eastern Ghouta has been under a ferocious air and ground attack by government forces backed by Russian warplanes. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks, and tens of thousands have fled during one of the bloodiest episodes in the eight-year conflict.

Meanwhile, heavy air strikes and shelling killed 29 civilians Eastern Ghouta's main town, a Britain-based monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the regime or its Russian ally carried out the air raids on the enclave's main town of Douma.