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Beirut: The Syrian rebel group Jaish Al-Islam does not want to close the door on negotiations with Russia to reach a peaceful settlement to the conflict over the town of Douma near Damascus, its political official Mohammad Alloush said on Friday.
"We don't want to close the door that can lead to sparing the blood of civilians and reaching a peaceful situation," he said in an interview with Al-Hadath TV. Alloush also denied the group had shelled residential areas of Damascus.
Separately, Jaish Al-Islam military spokesman in Douma said the group's artillery and rocket brigade was targeting government forces in response to "the massacre committed by the Assad militias and their ally the Russian war planes".
Earlier, heavy air strikes on the rebel-held town of Douma killed 35 Syrians including five children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The rebel-held town had been hit with at least 42 air strikes by regime or Russian airforce.
Syria's state news agency SANA said Syrian air strikes hit the town on Friday in response to rebel mortar fire from Douma that wounded seven people near the capital.
The regime and its ally Russia launched a blistering air and ground offensive on Eastern Ghouta in mid-February, killing more than 1,600 civilians and causing an international outcry.
The enclave on the eastern edge of Damascus had escaped government control since 2012 and although it had shrunk over the years, it still covered sizeable territory two months ago.
The daily air raids kept residents cowering in basements for weeks and a ground assault soon sliced the area into three isolated pockets, each held by different rebel factions.