Dozens reported killed in Aleppo bombings

Syrian government helicopters have dropped barrel bombs on opposition-held districts of the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 60 people, including several children, and injuring dozens, activists said.

Most of the victims apparently died in a popular market in the al-Sukari district on Monday. Opposition activists said the market was packed with residents waiting to get food aid at a distribution centre.

Two bombs hit Sukari minutes apart, with the second catching helpers who had gone to the assistance of people injured in the first, activists say.

“We were sleeping safely when the first barrel dropped around midnight,” resident Abu Mohammad told news agency AFP.

“And when people came to the rescue, a second barrel dropped, so all those people who were on the site were dead.

“We don’t have military bases in our area. All people here are civilians,” he said.

The other bomb hit Aleppo’s Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood.

Syria’s regime has waged a fierce aerial offensive against rebel-held areas of Aleppo since December.

Rights groups have decried the regime’s use of barrel bombs as unlawful because they lack any guidance mechanism, causing indiscriminate casualties.

Tens of thousands of people have fled rebel-held districts of Aleppo because of the bombings.

Meanwhile, residents of the Armenian Christian village of Kasab on Syria’s border with Turkey began returning home on Monday, dancing, cheering and waving flags in the main square a day after the army retook the area from rebels.

The fall of Kasab to President Bashar al-Assad’s forces less than three months after the rebels captured it dealt another symbolic and strategic blow to an opposition undermined in recent months by infighting and government gains.