Syrian warplanes launched a new round of bombings against rebel-held suburbs of the capital city of Damascus, killing at least 64 people, including both rebels and civilians.
Such attacks have become less common in recent weeks, as the focus of military operations against the rebels has moved northward, and the rebels themselves have turned on one another in fighting over territory the Assad government is unlikely to ever recover.
The reports from rebel mouthpiece the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say that the attack used vacuum (fuel-air) bombs, which create a blast wave and cause large numbers of casualties.
The use of such advanced bombs is not unprecedented, though it is a shift for the Syrian military, which has increasingly relied on makeshift weapons in the civil war, particularly in the north.