Syrian army air raids kill 14 children in rebels’ strongholds

An attack by the Syrian army air raid over rebel districts have killed 22 people, including 14 children and an 18-year-old boy, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The armed forces' helicopters dropped barrels laden with explosives over the Sakhur, Ard al-Hamra and Haydariyeh districts.

The Aleppo Media Centre (AMC), an activist network on the ground, reported several helicopter attacks on rebel-held areas of the city.

The Observatory also said the number of people killed in the town of Adra, northeast of Damascus, after a rebel faction attacked on Wednesday has risen to 28.

Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said the dead were primarily members of President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, as well as a few Druse and Shia Muslims. All three sects largely support Assad in the fight against the mainly Sunni rebels.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the UN World Food Programme said that 400 tonnes of food will be sent to the Middle-Eastern country while UN officials recently visited Damascus to help Syrians survive the cold winter months.

A peace conference in Geneva planned for next month is expected to address the situation in Syria but France Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, doubted whether the conference would beheld.

He warned that a failure to hold the meeting would mean more suffering for Syrians.