Syrian helicopters drop barrel bombs, kill at least 45

Dozens more civilians injured in strikes on Aleppo’s eastern neighborhood of Al-Bab, currently controlled by Islamic State

A series of barrel bombs dropped from Syrian regime helicopters killed at least 45 civilians and wounded dozens Saturday in the northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

“At least 45 civilians were killed, and dozens were wounded, when regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the city of Al-Bab and in an eastern neighborhood of Aleppo,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the bombs on Aleppo city struck the rebel-held eastern neighborhood of Al-Shaar, killing 12 people including eight members of a single family.

The bodies of those killed were wrapped and laid out on the streets of Al-Shaar, with the limp, blood-covered hand of one of them protruding from under a blanket, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.

Bulldozers were used to clear away the rubble by civil defense volunteers.

The other 33 civilians, all male, were killed at a market in Al-Bab, Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Al-Bab lies about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Aleppo city and is controlled by the extremist Islamic State group.

“People often gather on Saturday mornings at the Al-Hail market in Al-Bab, which is why the number of dead was so high,” said Abdel Rahman.

Those killed were all male because women have much less freedom of movement in IS-controlled areas, he added.

The Observatory said the death toll in Al-Bab was likely to rise, as many wounded civilians were in critical condition and another 18 were still unaccounted for.

Barrel bombs are crude weapons made of oil drums, gas cylinders or water tanks packed with explosives and scrap metal that are usually dropped from helicopters.

The Syrian government’s use of the weapons has come under fire by rights groups, who say barrel bombs are indiscriminate and often kill many civilians.

Elsewhere, at least six regime loyalist forces were killed and 10 wounded in an explosion Friday night in Tadamon, south of the Syrian capital, said the Observatory.

The neighborhood has seen an influx of refugees from nearby Yarmouk, after IS militants overran the Palestinian camp in April.