Syrian children 'torn apart' in attack

A local man in Syria's Aleppo says children have been found "torn apart" after a helicopter dumped a barrel bomb on a rebel-held area.

At least 16 civilians have been killed in violence in Syria's second city of Aleppo.

Residents found children "torn apart" after a regime helicopter dropped a barrel bomb on a rebel-held area, a local man said on Saturday.

At least 13 people were killed and 17 wounded in the raid on Maadi in northeastern Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In another part of the city, three children died and a dozen people were wounded when rebel rockets struck a regime-held district, the Observatory said.

The monitoring group said the Maadi deaths happened when the regime aircraft "dumped a barrel bomb of explosives on a building".

The death toll could rise because of the number of seriously injured people, it said.

The Observatory reported the death of only one child, but the local resident said at least four were killed.

"People were asleep... a grandfather emerged safe and sound but his three sons, all married, and their children, we still don't know what has happened to them," one resident said with emotion.

"They found four children torn apart after the helicopter dumped its barrel bomb, may God curse him," the man said, referring to President Bashar al-Assad, the focus of a three-year struggle by rebels to overthrow him.

The regime has pressed on with its barrel bomb campaign despite a United Nations resolution on February 22 banning their indiscriminate use in populated areas.


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