Syrian air raid kills nine: monitor

At least nine people, including five children, have been killed after a Syrian government air strike struck a neighbourhood in the northern city of Aleppo.

This photo posted by the anti-government activist website of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights shows Syrians walking at the damaged backyard of a school after an airstrike, in Ansari neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria (Website of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights via AP)

A Syrian government air raid has struck near a school in the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least nine people, activists say.

The Aleppo Media Centre and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air raid hit the opposition-held Ansari neighbourhood. The bloodshed comes a day after rebel shelling and government air strikes killed more than 30 people on both sides of the divided city, which is carved into government- and rebel-controlled areas.

The Observatory said at least nine people, including five children, were killed in Sunday's air strike, and warned that the tally could rise because many of the wounded were in critical condition. The Aleppo Media Centre put the death toll at 10 and said dozens of people were wounded.

Also on Sunday, the head of the UN agency that supports Palestinians visited refugees from the embattled Palestinian camp of Yarmouk in Damascus. The Palestinians fled Yarmouk, where heavy fighting has raged since Islamic State militants stormed the district more than a week ago, for a nearby government-controlled area of the Syrian capital.

UNRWA chief Pierre Krahenbuhl met with some 120 Palestinians who have found temporary refuge at a school in the Tadamon neighbourhood. Now safe, the Palestinians recalled the humanitarian crisis inside Yarmouk, where residents have already endured a more than two-year government siege, starvation and disease.

"The conditions were very difficult," said Rahaf Qadri, who left Yarmouk 10 days ago. "There was no food, and diseases have started to spread."

Another Yarmouk escapee, 50-year-old Mohammad al-Halabi, deplored the lack of food and electricity in the camp. He said the situation worsened with the attack by Islamic State fighters.

"We saw some people being beheaded and heard gunshots to terrorise people," al-Halabi he said. "They warned us that unless we join them, our heads will be cut off."