At least 33 killed in air strike on Aleppo

Syrian government aircraft have struck a busy market in a rebel-held district of Aleppo, killing at least 33 people in the latest deadly attack targeting mainly civilians in the city, said opposition activists.

Several activists said a government helicopter dropped three crude barrel bombs that exploded in the Hillok district along a civilian-packed street lined with vegetable and meat shops. They said the attack wounded scores of people.

“It was mayhem, many of the bodies are burned,” said Hasson Abu Faisal, an activist in Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said activists affiliated with the group counted at least 33 people who were killed in the attack, including women. The local Aleppo Media Centre put the toll at 44 killed. Such discrepancies are common in the immediate aftermath of attacks.

Activists said Hillok district, unlike other opposition-held areas in eastern Aleppo, has rarely been hit by government air strikes in the past six months, leading many from neighbouring, less safe areas to move there.

“It is a very densely populated area,” said Abu Faisal. He said some of the shops on the one-mile long street sold gallons of fuel for electrical generators, which apparently caught fire after the bombing. Makeshift hospitals in the area could barely keep up with the casualties, he added.

Balance of power
It is the latest deadly government strike on the city, Syria's largest. Aleppo has been divided between government forces and rebels for nearly two years, with constant fighting doing little to change the balance on the ground.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have been carrying out air strikes and dropping crude barrel bombs in rebel-held districts in the eastern part of the city, at times hitting schools, mosques and markets. The attacks have increased in the last two weeks, suggesting the government was stepping up its offensive in the city ahead of planned presidential elections on June 3rd.

On Wednesday, a government air strike that hit a school in Aleppo killed 20 people, including 17 children, said activists. Last week, government air strikes struck a crowded vegetable market in the opposition-held town of Atareb in Aleppo province, killing at least 30 people and wounding many others.

Opposition plea
The main, western-backed Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned the attack.

“The international community must take immediate measures to protect civilians from air strikes and neutralise the regime’s aircraft, which are showering Aleppo neighbourhoods with barrels of death every day while the entire world watches,” it said.

Activists also said yesterday that clashes between Syrian government forces and opposition fighters killed 14 rebels overnight along a strategic corridor between Damascus and the Lebanese border.

The fighting in Zabadani – a town near Damascus and the last rebel stronghold in the area – is part of the larger battle for control of the mountainous Qalamoun region, stretching from the Syrian capital to the border with Lebanon.

Rebels in the capital’s suburbs have been firing mortars into Damascus, the seat of Assad’s government, and militants also have struck back with car bombs.

Syrian state news agency SANA said mortar fire killed a man and wounded two teachers in central Damascus. Mortar fire in the town of Jaramana just outside the city killed a child and wounded 22 people, the agency said.

Earlier this week, a double car bombing in a pro-government district in Homs and a mortar strike in Damascus killed at least 54 people. – (PA)