Heavy rebel shelling and government airstrikes around Syria's capital on Wednesday killed at least 36 people and wounded scores more in a surge in violence just hours before the arrival of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, activists and state media said.
Zarif was scheduled to arrive in Damascus later in the afternoon, likely to discuss a four-point peace plan proposal Iran wants to offer to the United Nations to end Syria's grinding civil war. That plan reportedly includes a cease-fire and a "national unity government" but likely won't bring about a truce in a conflict that has killed more than 250,000 people since March 2011.
The rebel shelling began around morning rush hour in Damascus, with more than 50 shells striking the capital, including in the upper-class neighborhoods of Abu Rummaneh, Baramkeh and Qasaa, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Observatory said the shelling killed five people and wounded at least 20 people. Syrian state television also quoted the Interior Ministry as saying that the shelling killed five people and wounded 58. It blamed "terrorists" for the shelling, as state media regularly refers to those fighting against embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad's rule.
"We hid for two hours in the bathroom," said a resident by telephone from Qasaa, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "My children woke up terrified. Our windows were shattered and so was my car's windshield."
Shortly afterward, government warplanes attacked several rebel-held suburbs of the capital. The Local Coordination Committees said the air raids on Hamouriyeh, Saqba, Kfar Batna, Douma and Arbeen killed 35 and wounded dozens. The Observatory said the airstrikes killed at least 31 people and wounded more than 120 people.
Differing casualty counts are common in the chaotic aftermath of attacks in Syria.
The attacks come amid new diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Iran is one of Assad's strongest supporters and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to back government forces.
In Beirut, Hezbollah's leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah met with Zarif to discuss regional crises, including Syria's civil war.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station said Nasrallah and Zarif discussed attempts "to find solutions in more than one country."
Meanwhile, Al-Manar and Syrian activists said a 48-hour cease-fire has started in a Syrian town near the Lebanese border and two Shiite villages in northern Syria between Hezbollah fighters and rebels there. The cease-fire in Zabadani and the northern villages of Foua and Kfarya went into effect on Wednesday morning.
Hezbollah and Syrian troops have been trying to fully capture the one-time rebel stronghold of Zabadani for more than a month.
A coalition of rebel groups retaliated by attacking Foua and Kfarya in Idlib province, which are home to mostly Shiite villagers. A large number of civilians are trapped there by the fighting.
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