Regime air strikes on three adjacent rebel-held villages in northern Syria killed at least 39 civilians, 17 of them children, a monitoring group said today.
Eight siblings were among the dead from yesterday's strikes in southern Aleppo province, around 15 kilometres (10 miles) from the main highway south towards the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Dozens of civilians were also wounded in the raids, which involved both missile strikes and barrel bombing, the Observatory added.
The Syrian government has been repeatedly condemned for its widespread use of barrel bombs, crude weapons made from oil drums, gas cylinders or water tanks, packed with explosives and scrap metal, and dropped from helicopters.
