ALEPPO, Syria
At least 30 people have been killed in a barrel bomb attack on a market in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
Civil defense teams told The Anadolu Agency the attack was mounted by a helicopter belonging to Syrian government forces. Dozens were wounded in Saturday’s attack on the rebel-held Maadi neighborhood.
Bulldozers were used to free casualties from the debris of demolished houses.
Yaser Ahmed, an activist in Aleppo, said President Bashar al-Assad’s regime had used helicopters to conduct more than 15 barrel bomb attacks on rebel-held areas during the day.
Masakin Hananu, Maadi, Old Aleppo, Karm Jabal and Karm Hamoud neighborhoods had all been hit, he reported. Houses and a mosque were destroyed.
Barrel bombs are improvised bombs typically consisting of a barrel filled with high explosives, shrapnel, oil or chemicals, and dropped from an aircraft. Thousands have been dropped during the Syrian civil war, with the opposition Syrian National Council reporting 20,000 deaths from barrel bombs up to December 2013.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011. Last month, the Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that more than 133,000 people had been killed in Syrian regime attacks.
www.aa.com.tr/en
