Death toll in Syrian bombing raid on Aleppo rises to 76: monitor
(Reuters) -
Seventy-six people, including 28 children, were killed on Sunday when Syrian
army helicopters dropped "barrel bombs" on the northern city of
Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.
Barrel bombs are
explosive-filled cylinders or oil barrels, often rolled out of the back of
helicopters with little attempt at striking a particular target but capable of
causing widespread casualties and significant damage.
The Britain-based
Observatory said that rebel groups in Aleppo issued a statement asking
civilians in government-held parts of the city to move away from state security
buildings, which they said would be targeted in retaliation for the bombings.
President Bashar
al-Assad's forces, battling rebels in a 2-1/2 year conflict that has killed
more than 100,000 people, frequently deploy air power and artillery against
rebel-held districts across the country.
They have been unable
to recapture eastern and central parts of Aleppo, which rebels stormed in the
summer of 2012, but they have driven rebel fighters back from towns to the
southeast of the city in recent weeks.
The conflict has
grown sectarian, with majority Sunni rebels battling Assad's own Alawite sect
and Shi'ite militia.
The Observatory -
which has a network of opposition, pro-government and medical sources - also
said on Monday that rebels in northern Aleppo province were threatening to
strike two Shi'ite villages they have surrounded with missiles if barrel bombs
were used again by the army.
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