Syria continues air attacks on rebels

DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 18 (UPI) —

Syrian warplanes continued their week-long attack on rebel positions near the capital of Damascus, concentrating on the rebel-held city of Douma.

At least 10 people, including civilians, were killed Wednesday in the airstrikes, bringing the death count to at least 105 people since Sept. 11, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The area known as Eastern Ghouta, including Douma and nearby communities of suburban Damascus, is regarded as the core of opposition to the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, with tens of thousands of rebels unaffiliated with the militant Islamic State, the United Nations said. It is the area where Syrian forces allegedly used chemical weapons to kill about 1,300 people in August 2013.

Troops from the Syrian army and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia have increased operations in Ghouta in recent weeks.

Bashar al-Jaafari, Syrian envoy to the United Nations, said Tuesday his regime has been fighting "terror on behalf of the whole world for the past two years," adding that the exclusion of the Syrian government from talks to combat the Islamic State by a U.S.-led coalition showed "they do not want to combat terror in a serious way. They just want a pretext to interfere more and more in our internal affairs."