At least 25 people, including 14 children, were killed in regime air raids on rebel districts of the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
They were killed when regime forces unleashed an aerial attack using explosive-laden barrels over the eastern Aleppo districts of Sakhur, Ard al-Hamra, Ansari and Haydariyeh, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
Fourteen children and an 18-year-old boy are among 25 people killed, he said updating an earlier toll, and warning that the toll could rise because many people were wounded, some in critical condition.
The Aleppo Media Centre (AMC), an activist network on the ground, reported several air attacks on rebel-held areas of the city.Once Syria’s commercial Capital, Aleppo has suffered massive destruction since a rebel offensive in July last year.
The city is now divided into pro- and anti-regime areas, and according to the AMC, the regime uses its air force near daily to target rebel districts.
An AMC activist in the city, Mohammed al-Khatieb, said in a message posted on Facebook that the raids were “unprecedented.”
“Everyone is looking up at the skies and watching the planes. But there’s nothing to be done,” he said. Barrel bombs were dropped on some 10 neighbourhoods of the city, Khatieb later told AFP, adding: “Many people have been killed.”The bombings came a day after the Syrian Red Crescent on Saturday delivered food and medicine to the Aleppo central prison.