Scores of civilians killed as airstrikes pound Syria's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta

Witnesses said that regime rockets had been fired at civilian homes in several Eastern Ghouta towns, including Kafranbel, Arbeen, Hamouriyah, Hizza, Zamalka and Saqba.

The White Helmets civil defence group said that in Saqba alone, seven civilians had been killed, including three women and two children, with dozens more injured.

In Idlib, another one of the remaning opposition-held areas under relentless bombardment, at least three more civilians were killed by airstrikes, according to sources from the White Helmets.

Bashar al-Assad's regime, backed by the Russian military, have stepped up their deadly bombardment of the country's last rebel-held areas in Ghouta and Idlib in recent weeks in an attempt to annihilate the last remaining rebel fighters.

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The Syrian regime's forces and their Russian allies killed at least 29 civilians on Monday in airstrikes, a day after a suspected chemical attack hit Idlib province, injuring nine people.

Strong condemnation from the US has followed the attacks, which have also included hospitals being destroyed by burning napalm bombs.

There has been a heated exchange between the US and Russia at the United Nations over the reported use of chemical weapons by Assad's regime.

Regime or allied forces have fired suspected chlorine-filled munitions on targets in Eastern Ghouta on several occasions in recent weeks, sparking US warnings of military action.

Russia retorted that "no perpetrators have been identified" and accused the United States of orchestrating a "propaganda campaign" against the Syrian government.

But Assad's campaign of ongoing devastation in these areas has been described as "like the end of days" by the White Helmets, with no sign of them subsiding.

According to independent monitors, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed in eight-year-long Syrian war, mostly at the hands of the regime and its powerful allies, with millions more displaced both inside and outside of Syria.

The brutal tactics pursued mainly by the regime, which have included the use of chemical weapons, sieges, mass executions and torture against civilians have led to war crimes investigations.