Over 40 killed in Syria's Azaz airstrike

16 Aug 2012, 6:32 pm   -   Source: AAP

Air strikes on the town of Azaz in northern Syria have levelled the better part of a poor neighbourhood.

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Syrian government airstrikes on a residential neighbourhood in a rebel-held town have killed more than 40 people and wounded at least 100, international watchdog Human Rights Watch says.

The strikes on the town of Azaz in northern Syria on Wednesday levelled the better part of a poor neighbourhood and sent panicked civilians fleeing for cover.

So many people were wounded that the local hospital locked its doors and told people to drive the injured across the nearby Turkish border.

Reporters from The Associated Press saw nine bodies in the bombings' immediate aftermath, including a baby.

Human Rights Watch, which investigated the site of the bombing two hours after the attack, put the number at more than 40.

It was not known how many died at the local hospital or in Turkey.

"This horrific attack killed and wounded scores of civilians and destroyed a whole residential block," said Anna Neistat, the group's acting emergencies director said on Thursday.

"Yet again, Syrian government forces attacked with callous disregard for civilian life."

The group said two opposition Free Syrian Army facilities in the vicinity of the attack might have been targets of the Syrian aircraft.

One was the headquarters of the local Free Syrian Army brigade two streets away from the block that was hit. The other was a detention facility where the Free Syrian Army held "security detainees" - government military personnel and members of pro-government shabiha militia. Neither of these facilities was damaged in the attack.

The bombing of Azaz 50 kilometres north of Aleppo, shattered the sense of control rebels have sought to project since they took the area from President Bashar Assad's army last month.

Azaz is also the town where rebels have been holding 11 Lebanese Shi'ites they captured in May. On Wednesday, Lebanese media reported conflicting reports on their fate, but it was unclear whether they had been affected by the bombing.

In recent months, rebels have pushed the Syrian army from a number of towns in a swath of territory south of the Turkish border and north of Aleppo, Syria's largest city. About a dozen destroyed tanks and army vehicles are scattered around Azaz, left over from those battles.

As the Assad regime's grip on the ground slips, it is increasingly targeting rebel areas with attack helicopters and fighter jets - weapons the rebels can't challenge.

Also on Thursday, state-run television said government troops freed three journalists who were seized last week by rebels while covering violence in a Damascus suburb.

Syria TV said the journalists from the pro-regime TV station Al-Ikhbariya were freed in a "qualitative operation" on Thursday in the town of al-Tal just north of the capital. It did not provide further details.

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