‘Warplanes hit Damascus’

Syrian warplanes pounded opposition strongholds around Damascus and in the north on Wednesday,as President Bashar Assad’s forces intensified airstrikes against rebels seeking to topple him,activists claimed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,which gathers reports from a network of activists on the ground,said government jets carried out five strikes in the eastern Ghouta district,a rebel stronghold.

Three airstrikes also hit the rebel-held city of Maaret al-Numan that straddles a key supply route from Damascus to Aleppo,Syria’s largest city and a main front in the civil war. Maaret al-Numan has also been under constant bombardment since it fell to the rebels on October

10. No casualties were reported in Wednesday’s strikes,the Observatory said.

At least 185 people were killed nationwide in airstrikes and artillery shelling the day before,pushing the total death toll from the relentless fighting in Syria to over 36,000 since March 2011,said Rami Abdul-Rahman,the activist group’s president.

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At least 47 soldiers were also killed on Tuesday,according to the Observatory. Syria’s crisis began as a peaceful uprising against Assad’s regime inspired by the Arab Spring,but quickly morphed into a bloody civil war.

A motorcycle bomb attack near a Shiite Muslim shrine southeast of Damascus killed eight people and wounded dozens on Wednesday,a watchdog said. State TV said six people died and 13 were injured. WITH AFP