Syria army ramps up shelling near capital ahead of talks

Syrian government forces on Feb. 20 escalated their bombing campaign around Damascus, raining shells down on rebel territory and sending out a "bloody message" just days before renewed peace talks in Geneva.  
Representatives from the opposition and of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime are to head to Switzerland on Feb. 23 for another attempt to end their country's brutal six-year war.

But regime forces on Feb. 20 escalated their bombing of the edges of Syria's capital, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists on the ground.  

"The toll in regime air strikes on [northern rebel district of Damascus] Barzeh has increased to seven people, including a woman and child," the Observatory said, adding that 12 more had been wounded.  

The Britain-based monitor said rockets also hit the northeastern opposition-controlled neighborhood of Qabun overnight and into the morning of Feb. 20.

Rebels and regime forces reached a local cease-fire deal in Qabun in 2014, but violence has built up in the neighborhood since last week.  

At least 16 people were killed on Feb. 18 in government rocket fire on a funeral in Qabun, according to the Observatory.

Syria's opposition on Feb. 19 lambasted the government's renewed bombing campaign around the capital, calling it a "bloody message" aimed at sabotaging the peace talks.  

The High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said the attacks near Damascus and elsewhere across the country were "obstructing the efforts aimed at a political transition in Syria." 

"It is a bloody message from a criminal regime just a few days ahead of political negotiations in Geneva that demonstrates its rejection of any political solution," the HNC said in an online...