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Rights group: 96 hours of regime airstrikes kill and wound nearly 700 Syrian civilians

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Syrian regime airstrikes killed or wounded nearly 700 civilians in a 96-hour period.

By Fred Lambert
Black smoke rises over Aleppo, Syria, after government airstrikes on September 12, 2012. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on January 24, 2015, that recent Syrian military airstrikes had killed and wounded up to 700 civilians in a 96-hour period. UPI/Ahmad Deeb
Black smoke rises over Aleppo, Syria, after government airstrikes on September 12, 2012. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on January 24, 2015, that recent Syrian military airstrikes had killed and wounded up to 700 civilians in a 96-hour period. UPI/Ahmad Deeb | License Photo

DAMASCUS, Syria, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Hundreds of Syrian civilians have been killed or wounded in airstrikes conducted by the regime of Bashar Al-Assad over the past four days, according to a human rights observatory group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which gathers information from a variety of sources on the ground in the war-stricken nation, reported Saturday that 504 regime airstrikes had killed 127 civilians and wounded at least 500 others in a 96-hour period.

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Regime aircraft in Reef Dimashq, Aleppo, Quneitra, Der-Ezzor, Idlib and Dar'a conducted 219 strikes, while helicopters dropped almost 300 barrel bombs in the same area, as well as in Homs and Hama, SOHR says. The airstrikes also reportedly killed dozens of militants from groups such as the Islamic State and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

Meanwhile, a Syrian military airstrike in Damascus, the country's capital, killed at least 40 people who were leaving a mosque in a busy rebel-held district on Friday, including six children, according to witnesses, opposition groups and SOHR.

U.S. Central Command reported 13 airstrikes conducted in Syria on Jan. 23 by forces involved in Operation Inherent Resolve, a U.S.-led multinational coalition that includes Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The coalition is committed to an air campaign against IS forces in Syria and Iraq. Twelve airstrikes hit IS units around Kobani on the Syria-Turkey border, and one struck a mobile oil rig used by the group in Al Hasakah.

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