Syrian Government warplanes carried out airstrikes on a rebellious neighbourhood of the capital as well as a village in the country’s northeast on Sunday, killing at least 25 people, including 12 children, activists said.
With its ground forces stretched thin, President Bashar Assad’s regime has relied heavily on its fighter jets and helicopters to try to stem rebel advances in the country’s civil war. The air raids also frequently hit civilian areas, drawing criticism from the international community.
A Human Rights Watch report last week accused the Syrian Government of committing war crimes by using indiscriminate and sometimes deliberate airstrikes against civilians, killing at least 4,300 people since the summer.
Today, government jets bombed rebel-held areas in the predominantly Kurdish village of Hadad in the northeastern province of Hassaka, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said at least 16 people were killed, including two women and three children.
A Hassaka-based activist who was in Hadad when the planes struck said the bombs sent huge plumes of black smoke billowing over the town.