16:14 16/06/2015
Damascus - At least 20 people were killed and 100 wounded on
Monday in Syrian rebel rocket fire on government-held parts of the city
of Aleppo, Syrian state media said.
"The number of martyrs in the
massacre carried out by terrorists in Aleppo has risen to 20 dead and
more than 100 hurt," state television said in a breaking news alert.
The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the rocket fire,
putting the toll at 13, including two children, and adding that it was
expected to rise.
The group also said around 100 people were wounded, among them 20 children.
The
Britain-based monitor said rebels had fired some 250 rockets at several
districts in western Aleppo city in just four hours, causing massive
damage including the collapse of an entire building.
State television broadcast gruesome footage of the wounded being brought into hospital.
One stretcher carried the body of an adult whose face was covered with blood, and a dead child, ghostly with white dust.
Once
Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by the conflict
that began with anti-government protests in March 2011, before
spiralling into a civil war.
The city has been divided between
government control in the west and rebel control in the east since
shortly after fighting spread to it in mid-2012.
Regime forces
regularly bombard the eastern side from the air, dropping crude barrel
bombs that rights groups say are indiscriminate and can kill dozens of
civilians at a time.
Rights groups have similarly criticised rebels for firing indiscriminately into civilian areas in western Aleppo.
More than 230 000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011, according to the Observatory.
The
United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is currently
visiting Damascus to brief government officials on talks he has held on
ways to end the conflict.
Ahead of his visit, his spokesman said he would raise the "unacceptable" use of barrel bombs by the regime.
No comments:
Post a Comment