8 schoolkids among dozens killed in series of air strikes on Syria

Dozens of people were killed in an eighth day of air strikes on Aleppo in Syria on Sunday, a watchdog said, as a bombing in Homs killed five schoolchildren.

Dozens of people were killed in an eighth day of air strikes on Aleppo in Syria on Sunday, a watchdog said, as a bombing in Homs killed five schoolchildren.

“Dozens of people were killed or wounded” in attacks that saw loyalist warplanes drop so-called barrel bombs near the Friday market in Aleppo city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Separate attacks also targeted the rebel-held Sakhur, Ahmadiyeh, Baideen and Ard al-Hamra neighbourhoods of the former commercial capital, it said. The Aleppo Media Centre, a network of citizen journalists on the ground, also reported the attacks, adding that the barrel bomb attack “destroyed a bus, leaving no survivors”.

The bombing also destroyed “some 10 cars, as well as a residential building,” the AMC said. It added that “hospitals are packed with wounded”, and that the number of dead could not yet be confirmed.

The air force was “continuing to bombard several areas of Aleppo,” the AMC added.