Syrian aerial bombardment kills 20 in Aleppo city: activists

At least 20 people were allegedly killed by a Syrian aerial bombardment against a rebel-held area in the northern city of Aleppo Tuesday, a monitor group reported.

A Syrian aircraft dropped a crude barrel bomb near a bus station in the Jisr al-Haj area in Aleppo, leaving over 30 people wounded, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Observatory said women and children were among those wounded in the attack, adding that the death toll could rise due to the number of critically wounded people.

The Syrian opposition repeatedly accused the government troops of using barrel bombs against rebel-held areas, mostly in Aleppo.

The government media also accused the rebels of shelling the government-controlled areas with the so-called Hell Cannon, a class of short-range mortar-like improvised firearms in-use by insurgent forces.

The projectile is a re-purposed gas cylinder filled with explosives and shrapnel.

A day earlier, the Observatory said 50 civilians, including 22 minors and eight women, were killed over the past week as a result of the rebel mortar and rocket fire on government-controlled areas in Aleppo.

It said the Badr Martyrs Brigade and allied militants were responsible for the shelling and have intensified their firing after the government troops killed the commander of Badr group, Khaled Hayyani, on May 2.

Aleppo city, Syria's second largest city and once economic hub, is carved out between the Syrian government forces, who are in control of the western part, and an array of rebel groups in the east. Endit