Syrian air strikes kill 21 in Aleppo

At least 21 people were killed on Tuesday as Syrian war planes bombed rebel-held areas in the country's northern city of Aleppo, a monitor group reported.

Six children and women were among those killed when the Syrian air force struck several positions of the armed militants in the city of Manbej, which is controlled by the Islamic State (IS) militants in the northern countryside of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Several IS militants were also killed in the aerial shelling, the Observatory said, stopping short of giving the death toll of the slain IS militiamen.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once an economic hub, has been torn between the rebels in the east and the government forces in the western parts of the city while parts of the northern countryside are under the IS control.

Earlier in the day, the UK-based watchdog group said the armed militants fired around 300 improvised rockets and mortar shells slammed into predominantly-Shiite towns in northwestern Syria, killing seven civilians.

The rockets were fired by the Jihadi groups against the towns of Foa'a and Kafraya, two of the very few remaining government strongholds in the countryside of the northwestern province of Idlib. Endit