The Syrian military has fired a number of missiles into the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma today, hitting a crowded marketplace and sparking an enormous, civilian-heavy number of casualties. At least 89 were killed and over 100 others wounded, and the figures are still believed to be rising.
12 missiles were described as having hit the area around the marketplace, leveling a number of buildings and trapping many civilians underneath. Locals complain that the area was totally civilian in nature, saying they don’t allow combatants of any stripe into the area.
Other locals reported that missiles landed all over Douma, and not just in the marketplace, though the casualties were overwhelmingly from hitting this area. The suburb has been held by rebel factions for years, though is largely surrounded by pro-government districts at this point.
This has left Douma, and suburbs like it, as designed whipping boys for the Syrian military, which never seems to commit the force needed to capture the area outright, but regularly does after the town in high-profile, high-casualty attacks like today’s.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is the source of this information.
This organization amounts to one dude operating out of his home in the U.K.
The very definition of a Tool®
Apparently, even tools sometimes show some honor, as it is SOHR that reported the terrorists using human shields in cages.