Syrian air force strikes killed at least 82 people in an opposition-held district outside Damascus, following rocket attacks by rebels that had hit the government-controlled center of the Syrian capital, a monitoring group said on Friday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said the air force conducted 60 strikes on the Eastern Ghouta district on Thursday and during the night, killing 11 fighters. The casualties also included at least 12 children.
It was the deadliest aerial attack by the Syrian army since November 25, when 95 people were killed in airstrikes on Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.
Thursday's strikes came after a rebel group called Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) in Eastern Ghouta fired a barrage of at least 120 mortar rounds and rockets into Damascus, killing six people, among them a child.
Army of Islam was formed by a merger of rebel factions in 2013 and has received backing from Saudi Arabia.