The announcement of a January 22 date for the Geneva II peace conference appears to have had no impact on the Syrian Civil War itself, as dozens were killed nationwide in continued fighting.
Today’s violence underscored the growing fracture of Syria into a government-held south and a rebel-held northwest, with government air strikes targeting rebel-held areas of the northern Aleppo Province, killing 29, and a rebel suicide bomber killing 15 in metro Damascus.
The air strikes hit the town of al-Bab and a vegetable market in Aleppo itself. Several civilians were reported among the slain but exact figures were still debated among different rebel factions.
The Damascus bombing hit a bus stop in Somariyeh, near a housing complex used by many Syrian soldiers. Six soldiers were among the slain there, and nine civilians.
