Air strikes in Syria kill 23

BEIRUT — Air strikes hit near a school and a hospital east of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Wednesday, killing at least 23 people in one of the deadliest incidents involving civilians since a partial cease-fire took effect in the war-torn country more than a month ago, pro-opposition activists said Thursday.

British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond, meanwhile, scoffed at Syrian President Bashar Assad’s remarks offering a national unity government with some members of the opposition.

The Local Coordination Committees, another opposition activist group, put the death toll from the air strikes at 17.

The Syrian National Coalition, an opposition group, denounced the “massacre” in Deir al-Asafir, saying it threatened to derail the cease-fire and peace talks that are scheduled to resume in Geneva in two weeks.

In comments made in an interview with Russia’s state news agency Sputnik, however, Assad rejected a key opposition demand for a transitional ruling body with full powers, which major powers agreed on at a Geneva conference in June 2012.