Shell shocked: Syrian army ramps up assault near the capital ahead of crunch Geneva talks

A Syrian woman sits with injured children at a hospital following a reported strike by government forces in the rebel-held district of Barzeh, on the outskirts of Damascus.

Syrian regime forces yesterday escalated their bombing campaign around Damascus, raining shells down on rebel territory and sending out a “bloody message” just days before renewed peace talks in Geneva. “Regime air strikes killed four people and wounded another 15 in escalation on Barzeh,” a northern rebel-held district of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists on the ground said.