Syrian military airstrike kills at least 13 including children

Beirut: A Syrian military airstrike killed at least 13 people, including children, and wounded another 20 in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on Tuesday after striking a neighborhood with crude bombs, said activists. The military aircraft dropped at least one “barrel bomb” — crude weapons made from canisters laden with explosives and hurled from helicopters — to strike the Qabr al-Inglizi area in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on Tuesday, reported the activist collective, the Aleppo Media Center, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. [caption id=“attachment_1809351” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  An injured man waits to receive treatments at a field hospital after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in the Duma neighborhood of Damascus. Reuters[/caption] The Observatory said at least 13 were killed, including two children and a woman, and that the death toll was likely to rise because more people were buried under the rubble. At least two slain children were piled into the back of a flat-bed truck; at least one was covered under a bright red blanket; a man referred to the children as being torn apart as he partially lifted the blanket, according to a video of the incident uploaded to social media. The video appeared genuine and corresponded with The Associated Press reporting of the event. “Bashar you dog! You oppressor! May this happen to your children!” said one man in the video, referring to President Bashar Assad. “These are children, not terrorists!” he said, standing on a wall and gesticulating with his hands. Another video of the incident showed a burning vehicle. It wasn’t clear if something else was targeted as well. The Syrian military widely uses so-called “barrel bombs” to strike at rebel-held areas. They have been widely criticized because they cannot be precisely targeted, and are believed to have killed thousands of civilians, particularly in northern Syria. Syria’s war, now well into its fourth year, began as an uprising against Assad’s continued rule. It has since become a complicated civil war, and activists estimate some 200,000 people have been killed. AP