New Air Strikes on Aleppo Kill Dozens, Schoolchildren among 8 Dead in Homs

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

Dozens of people were killed in an eighth day of air strikes on Aleppo in Syria on Sunday, a watchdog said, as a bombing in Homs killed five schoolchildren.

A single airstrike on an Aleppo neighborhood killed at least 42 people, including at least six children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Observatory, a Britain-based group relying on activists and other witnesses inside Syria, said another 17 people were critically wounded when regime aircraft dropped "TNT-packed barrels" on the Hanano neighborhood.

Earlier Sunday, the Syrian air force had dropped TNT-packed barrels on several parts of Aleppo and villages nearby.

The Aleppo Media Center, a network of citizen journalists in the northern city, had singled out the bombing of Hanano as especially deadly, as the barrel bombs had struck a bus, "leaving no survivors."

The Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said President Bashar Assad's regime "is trying to turn people in opposition areas against the rebels. It is killing and forcing people to flee in order to secure that goal."

Other air attacks struck the rebel-held Sakhur, Ahmadiyeh, Baideen and Ard al-Hamra neighborhoods of the city, which has been cleaved into regime- and rebel-held enclaves since the summer of 2012.

Elsewhere in Aleppo province, Marea and Atareb villages were also hit Sunday, said the Observatory.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a network of grassroots activists, described "panic and mass flight to the countryside, despite the intense cold."

It also said two of the fatalities were ambulance workers, who died in the unrelenting bombardment as they tried to help wounded people.

Meanwhile, Aleppo's opposition Provincial Council announced schools in rebel-held areas would be closed "for a week... because of the systematic, deliberate bombing."

The council also said in a statement that two schools had been hit in Sunday's bombing.

Footage distributed by Shahba Press, another network of citizen journalists, showed a child in his badly damaged school saying that the bombing in Marea village happened while classes were being held.

On Saturday, Human Rights Watch said "government forces had used means and methods of warfare that... could not distinguish between civilians and combatants, making attacks indiscriminate and therefore unlawful."

It also condemned the reported use of the highly destructive barrel bombs, adding that "military commanders should not... order the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas."

In the central province of Homs, a car bombing on Sunday killed eight people, six of them schoolchildren, the official SANA news agency reported.

"Terrorists blew up a car bomb near the primary school in the town of Omm al-Amd in the countryside outside Homs, killing eight people including six children, and wounding 34 others," SANA said.

The Observatory reported a higher death toll of at least 12, including five children.

It said Omm al-Amd is home to a Shiite community close to the Alawite sect of President Bashar Assad, unlike the majority Sunni Muslim rebels fighting to topple him.

Comments 12
Thumb benzona 22 December 2013, 12:28

you just got a stiffy after reading that 5 Syrian School children got blasted.

Thumb benzona 22 December 2013, 12:51

Ah ha ha ha! You're so cute lo°°ser.

Thumb sevilla 22 December 2013, 12:57

flamethrower;; did you read these articles:

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/110893-syria-regime-raining-death-on-aleppo-says-hrw

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/110826-cleric-killed-in-shelling-of-syria-mosque

Missing peace 22 December 2013, 17:50

don't worry casper , for M8ers there are killings of children that are halal and other we should cry for....

double standard hypocrit people is all they are....

Thumb cedre 22 December 2013, 19:36

ft who told u nusra did the car bombing ?
Bashar has been bombing Bab Touma and other christian places to keep christians silent...

Thumb Mystic 22 December 2013, 13:17

Casper, Naharnet has a way of fabricating :)

Thumb cedre 22 December 2013, 19:34

I'm not m14/m8, but I condemn(ed) any form of sectarian attacks...

Missing peace 22 December 2013, 19:41

La vidéo postée sur Youtube, le 25 juin, sur un compte proche du Hezbollah (le compte Baalbek), montre l’exécution de deux hommes, dont l’un est présenté comme un évêque. Le document, analysé par des spécialistes de l’image, semble être un faux, destiné à alimenter l’intox, à terroriser les Chrétiens syriens et l’Occident, à amplifier la menace des islamistes et à justifier la guerre d’extermination menée par le régime et le Hezbollah.

http://www.mediarabe.info/spip.php?article2344

Thumb Mystic 23 December 2013, 05:57

I don't agree bigjohn bro, if the terrorists hides in civilian areas, what are we supposed to do? Let them wreck more havoc? No we bomb them ofcourse

Thumb benzona 23 December 2013, 06:03

funny, israel says the same about HA. they hide in urban areas, inside civilian buildings. another proof they are terrorists (for those who still had doubts) and the scum of the earth.

Thumb Mystic 23 December 2013, 06:04

Funny thing US use drones everyday, and nobody says a thing about it.

Thumb Mystic 23 December 2013, 06:06

Nope, because Hezbollah didn't need to stay in the cities, their best strategic/tactical attacks would be from the border, but Israel ofcourse had to bomb the cities to punish Lebanon. These are facts benz, Hezbollah are not cowards such as your beloved takfiris