This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/16/thirty-six-people-killed-syrian-army-helicopters-barrel-bombs

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Thirty-six people, nearly half of them children, 'killed by Syrian army' Syrian army bombing 'kills scores in Aleppo'
(35 minutes later)
Thirty-six people, nearly half of them children, were killed on Sunday when Syrian army helicopters dropped improvised "barrel bombs" on the disputed northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. 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 has said.
Video uploaded by local activists showed a fire in a narrow street covered in debris and dust after one air raid in the Karam el-Beik district. Another showed blackened and twisted wreckage of a vehicle at a busy roundabout.
The Britain-based Observatory said at least 15 of the casualties on Sunday were children.
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.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.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces, battling rebels in a two and a half year conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people, frequently deploy air power and artillery against rebel-held districts across the country. The Britain-based Observatory said rebel groups in Aleppo had 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 two-and-a-half-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 south-east of the city in recent weeks.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 south-east of the city in recent weeks.
Backed by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and Iraqi Shi'ite fighters, they have also consolidated Assad's control over the capital Damascus and the main highway north to the central city of Homs, despite counter-attacks by the Sunni rebels, who include many foreign jihadi fighters. The conflict has grown sectarian, with majority Sunni rebels battling Assad's own Alawite sect and Shia militia.
The Observatory also said on Sunday the death toll from a sectarian attack by Islamist rebels on Wednesday in the town of Adra, northeast of Damascus, had risen to 28. 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 Shia villages they have surrounded with missiles if barrel bombs were used again by the army.
It said the dead included Alawites – the same minority sect which Assad belongs to – Druze and Shi'ite Muslims.
Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.