Regime helicopters barrel-bomb Aleppo school in civilian campaign

A civil defense worker carries a wounded child from the site of a regime barrel bombing in downtown Aleppo on Sunday.

“Saif Al-Dawla neighborhood is cut in two–the north is regime held, while the south side lies in rebel hands, where the barrel-bombed schools are,” an Aleppo-based journalist who requested anonymity told Syria Direct on Monday.

A regime helicopter rained barrel bombs on a pre-school and a private school in the contested Saif al-Dawla neighborhood in central Aleppo on Sunday, killing and wounding dozens of civilians in an ongoing campaign to punish the inhabitants of rebel-held neighborhoods, reportedAl-Jazeera on Sunday.

“The regime has been dropping barrel bombs on liberated [rebel-controlled] areas for a month now, even hitting hospitals,” the journalist said.

The helicopter-born barrel bombs exploded on a private school in Saif Al-Dawla as students were beginning a test, reported Siraj Press, a pro-opposition news site, on Sunday. Aleppo Civil Defense forces are still searching for the dead and dying trapped under rubble, said pro-opposition Orient News.

In a Kafkaesque bureaucratic note, the very entity charged with bombing Aleppo’s schools–the Syrian regime–issued an order Sunday to shut them down, citing a belated concern for student safety. Teachers who shutter their schools will be paid through year, according to the statement, while those who continue to teach may be held liable “should any students or teachers be injured on the job.”

State media and pro-regime news outlets did not acknowledge the barrel bombing attacks.