More than 100 killed in Syria attacks

BEIRUT – Airstrikes in Syria killed more than 100 people Friday as civilians, weary and many wounded, fled besieged areas for the second straight day.

Syrian government forces stepped up their offensive in the rebel-held eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus, capturing a major town and closing in on another under the cover of Russia’s air power.

The majority of the deaths occurred in eastern Ghouta, where government forces have been on an offensive for three weeks, capturing 70% of the besieged area. The weekslong violence has left more than 1,300 civilians dead and 5,000 wounded and forced thousands to flee to government-controlled areas.

Friday’s death toll came a day after Syria passed the seven-year mark in its relentless civil war that has killed some 450,000 people and displaced half the country’s population.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said bombing and shelling by government and Russian forces killed a total of 76 people in eastern Ghouta, including 64 killed in Kafr Batna and another 12 in Saqba. Government forces also captured the nearby town of Jisreen, it said.

“If the world does not move, Ghouta will be exterminated,” said Siraj Mah- moud, a member of the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group.

The Observatory said 36 people were killed in the Kurdish-held town of Afrin in northern Syria, where Turkish troops and Turkeybacked Syrian opposition fighters have been on the offensive since Jan. 20. The dead included nine killed in airstrikes that hit the town’s general hospital.

“The medical situation is catastrophic. We can’t stay in this situation for long,” said Dr. Zouhair Kahaleh in the nearby town of Arbeen. Roads were closed, he said, and “we can’t treat some of the cases here. It’s a major challenge to reach the wounded because of the intensity of the airstrikes.”