The Latest: Toll from rocket attack on Damascus rises to 35
BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local):
7:55 p.m.
Syrian TV has raised the death toll from what it describes as a "terrorist" attack on a market in the capital to 35.
State-run Al-Ikhbariya quotes hospital sources in Damascus for the casualty toll from Tuesday's attack on the Kashkol neighborhood.
The death toll would be one of the highest in a single attack by opposition fighters targeting the capital.
Rebels entrenched in a region east of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta frequently fire rockets and mortar shells at the capital.
Eastern Ghouta has been under a ferocious air and ground attack by government forces backed by Russian warplanes. Hundreds of people have been killed there in recent weeks, and tens of thousands have fled.
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7:20 p.m.
Syrian state-run media says a rocket fired on a neighborhood of Damascus has killed 24 civilians and wounded 15.
The official news agency SANA says the rocket was fired by "terrorists" on the Kashkol neighborhood, on the edge of Jaramana district, on Tuesday. The Al-Ikhbariya TV said the rocket hit a market.
The death toll would be one of the highest in a single attack by rebels targeting the capital. Rebels entrenched in a region east of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta frequently fire rockets and mortar shells at the capital.
Eastern Ghouta has been under a ferocious air and ground attack by government forces backed by Russian warplanes. Hundreds of people have been killed there in recent weeks, and tens of thousands have fled.
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5:35 p.m.
Syrian rescue workers say at least nine people have been killed in airstrikes targeting a camp for displaced people in north Syria.
The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, says a camp outside the town of Maarat al-Nouman in the Idlib region was struck on Monday.
Video from the group shows smoke rising out of an overturned, charred vehicle in the middle of a camp amid collapsed tents and a range of clothes, personal items and other objects flung along the muddy ground.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says 3 women, 4 children, and 2 men were killed.
The area falls under opposition control. It was not immediately clear who was behind the strikes.
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3:40 p.m.
Turkey says it won't allow looting in the northern Syrian town of Afrin, which Turkish troops and allied Syrian forces seized from Kurdish fighters over the weekend.
Speaking in Ankara on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "We are sensitive to looting or inhuman treatment and we won't allow them."
A Syria war monitoring group has reported looting of shops, homes and cars in Afrin since Turkey's military and allied Syrian fighters seized control of it on Sunday.
A commander with the Turkey-backed Syrian forces blamed the looting on "thieves," and said a unit had been created to prevent further theft.
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3:30 p.m.
U.N. officials say some 100,000 people are "trapped" in rural areas of Syria's northern Afrin district and need humanitarian aid after Turkish and allied Syrian forces drove out a Syrian Kurdish militia.
Spokeswoman Marixie Mercado of children's agency UNICEF says it hasn't been able to deliver health and nutrition supplies to the district in 20 days, and water trucks have stopped deliveries since Thursday.
UNICEF estimates 50,000 children are among those who need humanitarian aid in Afrin.
On Twitter, Syria country representative Sajjad Malik of the U.N. refugee agency wrote Tuesday that "looting, destruction of properties & exodus of civilians continues" in Afrin, and "100,000 civilians stay trapped inside in rural areas."
On Monday, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, raised doubts about Turkish aid efforts in Afrin, saying "the credibility of the Turkish Red Crescent working in Afrin with the Kurdish population is close to zero."
Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Maurer's statement was "far from truth and inacceptable."
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12:25 p.m.
The U.N. refugee agency says 45,000 Syrians have left their homes in the besieged region of eastern Ghouta in recent days, amid a Syrian government-led offensive against the rebel-held area.
UNHCR says hundreds of thousands of people are "still trapped by fierce fighting and in dire need of aid."
Spokesman Andrej Mahecic told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that UNHCR is not involved in the evacuation into government-controlled areas near Damascus, though its teams have been at "makeshift collective shelters."
He said "shortage of appropriate shelter is a major concern", and UNHCR has delivered 180,000 "core relief items" such as mattresses, blankets, winter clothes kits, solar lamps and kitchen sets.
The agency called for "full and unhindered humanitarian access to civilians" in the region - both inside and outside eastern Ghouta.
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12:10 p.m.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the United States to "show respect" and "walk with" its NATO ally. His remarks are the latest criticism by the Turkish leader of Washington over its engagement with Syrian Kurdish militia.
Erdogan's comments on Tuesday came in reply to statements from the U.S. State Department expressing concern over Turkey's cross-border offensive in the northwestern Syrian enclave of Afrin, which Turkish troops and allied Syrian forces captured from the Syrian Kurdish militia on Sunday.
Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish militia as extension of outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting inside Turkey.
Addressing ruling party legislators in Ankara, Erdogan said: "On the one hand you say you're our strategic partner, and then you go collaborate with terrorists... If we're going to be strategic partners, you have to respect us and walk with us."
Erdogan said the Turkish operations in Afrin would continue "for a while longer" as Turkey's military and Turkish-backed opposition fighters clear the region of booby traps and other explosives.
The Turkish leader said 46 Turkish security force members and 269 Syrian opposition fighters were killed in the eight-week offensive.
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11:05 a.m.
A Syrian war monitoring group says Islamic State militants have captured a largely vacant neighborhood in Damascus following intense fighting with pro-government forces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says militants seized Qadam late on Monday, a week after Syrian rebels had surrendered the neighborhood to the government
The Observatory says 36 pro-government fighters were killed in clashes, and dozens more wounded or captured. It says the Syrian government has sent reinforcements into the area.
Earlier, IS claimed to have captured Qadam in a statement circulating on Twitter.
There was no immediate comment from the government.
The fighting in Qadam, which is south of Damascus, came as Syrian forces are focused on recapturing the rebel-held eastern Ghouta suburbs of the country's capital.