Scores killed in barrel bomb attack in Syria

According to activists in the region, Syrian government air raids have caused the death of 42 people in a rebel-held village near Damascus.

A "massacre" against the village of Hamoriyah in eastern Ghouta area on Friday, was reported by The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with at least 42 people, including six children were killed.

According to the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a network of opponents to the government, one of the air strikes hit a square where people had gathered for the weekly Muslim Friday prayers.

The opposition Syrian Media Organisation posted footage on YouTube of several bodies strewn on a blood-stained floor, some of them children and other bodies under white shrouds or jackets.

Another opposition group, the Shaam News Network, published a video on its Facebook page showing what it said was the aftermath of a blast in an open square. Bodies lay on the road and buildings were damaged.

The authenticity of the videos has as yet not been confirmed.

Syria's air force began launching strikes against opposition-held areas in the summer of 2012.  Rights groups condemned the regime for attacks they say fail to discriminate between civilian and military targets.

The rebel-held eastern Ghouta area, located east of the capital, has been under army siege for more than a year, leaving tens of thousands of civilians short of food and medical supplies.

According to the UN, at least 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the civil war that began with an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.