Syrian government warplanes supported by Russia have continued their bombardment of the rebel-controlled eastern suburbs of Damascus for a sixth day, killing five people, activists said.

World leaders and aid groups are calling for an end to the Syrian government's bombing of opposition-held eastern suburbs of Damascus that has left hundreds of people dead in recent days.

Doctors in Syria's rebel-controlled suburbs of Damascus have said they cannot keep up with the number of casualties, amid shelling by government forces.

Sweden and Kuwait called for a vote on a UN resolution ordering a 30-day cease-fire throughout Syria to enable delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of people in acute need, and the evacuation of the critically sick and wounded.

Intense Syrian government shelling and air strikes of rebel-held Damascus suburbs killed at least 98 people on what was the deadliest day in the area in three years, a monitoring group and paramedics said.

New air strikes launched by Russian and Syrian government forces on a rebel-held region east of Damascus have killed at least eight people, opposition activists said.

Activists and rescue teams have accused the Syrian government of launching an attack with suspected poisonous gas that has affected nearly 20 civilians in a rebel-held suburb near the capital, Damascus.

Heavy clashes are taking place between Syrian government forces and insurgents east of Damascus amid at least a dozen air strikes, activists said.

More than 400 patients on a UN list waiting for evacuations from a siege in Syria have been left behind as the Red Cross said it had moved just 29 people and their families to Damascus for medical care.

Sixteen patients and their families have been evacuated from besieged rebel-held suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus, the Red Cross said.

A senior Syrian opposition leader has quit his post, a week before a new round of UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva.

We’ve all heard of the biblical “road to Damascus” but, in the case of two childhood friends, the path has led away from the Syrian capital all the way to West Cork.

Hundreds of rebels and their families have boarded buses to leave a besieged opposition-held neighbourhood of the Syrian capital Damascus, according to state TV and opposition activists.

More than 7,000 people have been evacuated from four besieged towns in the latest co-ordinated population transfer in Syria's six-year civil war.

Latest: At least 30 people have been killed, state media said.

Syrian authorities have killed at least 13,000 people since the start of the 2011 uprising, in mass hangings at a prison north of Damascus known to detainees as "the slaughterhouse", Amnesty International has said.

Syrian government forces have shelled a village in a rebel-controlled area, killing at least 12 civilians and injuring several others who were sheltering in a banquet hall, opposition activists said.

Syrian government and opposition forces fighting over the strategic Barada Valley have agreed a temporary ceasefire, according to a media arm of Hezbollah.

Residents of Damascus are scrambling for clean water after the government attacked rebels holding the city's main source in a nearby valley, leading to an accidental outage that has stretched on for nearly two weeks.

Syrian government forces are pressing an offensive in a valley north west of Damascus as 10 rebel groups suspended talks on planned peace negotiations because of what they described as government violations of a ceasefire deal.

A nationwide ceasefire between Syrian government forces and opposition rebels has come into effect.

At least 14 people have been killed after air strikes on rebel-held parts of Aleppo, while six other people including children died when a school was shelled in southern Syria

Syrian government forces and allied militias have made a swift advance into rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, threatening to disrupt a years-long stalemate in the war around the Syrian capital.

Islamic State (IS) militants have abducted 300 cement workers and contractors in an area north-east of Damascus, Syrian state TV reported as fighting elsewhere in the country also worsened.

Warplanes yesterday unleashed air strikes on the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus and near the rebel-held city of Aleppo, hours before a ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia was due to go into effect at midnight.

Four explosions went off in a predominantly Shiite suburb of the capital Damascus, Syrian state TV reported.

A suicide car bomber dispatched by the Islamic State group struck near a police officers’ club in the Syrian capital, killing at least 10 people.

The Syrian government has allowed aid into a rebel-held area near Damascus in what appeared to be a goodwill gesture after UN-mediated indirect peace talks got off to a rocky start in Geneva.

Syrian troops and allied militiamen have seized control of a sprawling military air base near Damascus, bolstering the government’s presence in a key area overwhelmingly controlled by opposition forces.

Syrian government helicopter gunships have attacked a suburb of the capital, Damascus, a day after air strikes on nearby areas killed at least 45 people, opposition activists said.

It is being reported that Syrian rebels had locked people in cages to use them as human shields against government air raids.

The Islamic State militant group is advancing in central Syria, seizing control of a town that lies near a main road leading to the capital, Damascus, and attacking another, reports said.

At least 40 people have been killed in a missile attack on the Syrian capital Damascus.

Syrian government planes have attacked a busy market in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, killing at least 82 people and wounding more than 200, activists said.

Shelling and sporadic clashes have struck a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital, a situation a UN official describes as “beyond inhumane”.

This week the Irish Examiner printed this incredible image of thousands of people queuing for food aid on the war-torn streets of Syria. Serene Assir talks to residents of the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk where fighting off starvation and death has become a daily reality.