The UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has condemned a deadly air strike on a marketplace northeast of Damascus.

Mistura said Sunday’s bombing in Douma was "unacceptable in any circumstances".

“The government's bombing of Douma yesterday is devastating. Attacks on civilian areas with aerial indiscriminate bombs, such as vacuum bombs, are prohibited under international law," he said in a statement on Monday.

"Hitting crowded civilian markets, killing almost 100 of its own citizens by a government is unacceptable in any circumstances," Mistura said.

Yesterday's attack came after armed opposition groups cut water supplies last week in Damascus, he added.

"Humanitarian access must be allowed unconditionally and the killing must stop," Mistura said.
Separately in Washington, the State Department condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”.

“Yesterday’s airstrikes, following its other recent market bombings and attacks on medical facilities, demonstrate the regime’s disregard for human life,” spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Monday.

National Security Council spokesman Ned Price added that the Douma strikes “underscore that the Assad regime has lost legitimacy and that the international community must do more to enable a genuine political transition”.

The Syria conflict began in early 2011 when the regime of President Bashar al-Assad responded with ferocity to popular protests that erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings.

More than four years of intense fighting have left the country divided between pro-Assad forces and a number of heavily armed opposition factions, which are often at odds among themselves.

Roughly half of the country’s population has been displaced by the violence, with over 4 million Syrians now seeking refuge in neighboring countries, especially Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

PHOTO CAPTION

People inspect a site hit by air strikes by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on a marketplace in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus, Syria August 16, 2015.

AA