An airstrike against the town of Hammuriyeh, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital city of Damascus, killed at least 16 civilians and wounded dozens of others, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It was unclear who carried out the airstrike, though it did target a rebel-held area, so it was likely a Syrian military airstrike. Syrian officials did not offer any comment on the matter, and it’s unclear what their reason might have been.
It is worth speculating, however, that the strike is related to the multiple rebel incursions into Damascus over the past week, raids which surprised many who considered defenses around the capital relatively secure. The raids involved the use of tunnels.
The military was able to relatively quickly muster reinforcements and expel the rebels, though they did manage to set up mortars and fire a few rounds into the embassy district. There were reports of one strike doing superficial damage to the Russian Embassy, though there were no apparent casualties from the shelling.