Explosive barrels rain on Aleppo

PUNISHING CIVILIANS: The Syrian air force “committed massacres” in the city of Aleppo, the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution said Sunday, after the air force dropped explosive barrels on several rebel-controlled neighborhoods. “Initial reports say there are 78 dead and more than 200 injured due to the explosive barrels,” the Commission, a moderate pro-opposition civil society organization, said in a statement.

Several vehicles were also destroyed in the barrel-bomb attacks, an inexpensive weapon designed to destroy anything and anyone within range. [See Syria Direct’s infographic on weaponry here.]In this video at 1:38, a man in tears holds a license plate, what is left of his vehicle, along with a scorched ID card, for the camera.

A series of eastern Aleppo neighborhoods were also exposed to shelling over the weekend.On Monday, the Syrian air force struckthe Dariq al-Bab neighborhood in east Aleppo, according to the pro-opposition Local Coordination Committee.

Syrian state news agency SANA news agency said “terrorist armed groups” had been fully eliminated in those neighborhoods.

In response, the FSA-affiliated Ahrar Souria threatened to target state security buildings in Aleppo and bomb the regime-held towns of Nabl and a-Zahra “if another barrel falls on the heads of our civilians.”

Video courtesy of the Aleppo Media Center.

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