Air Strikes Kill 48, Including Civilians, in Syria’s Aleppo

Attacks Included Barrel Bomb Strikes Around City's South

Multiple air strikes have pounded rebel-held areas in and around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo over the past 24 hours, killing at least 48 people and wounding dozens of others.

The biggest strikes hit late Sunday in the Ferdous District, a marketplace district where 29 people, including several civilians, were killed in the air strikes according to rebels.

Other attacks targeted the Baedeen neighborhood and Tlajabin, a village on the city’s outskirts, which were both attacked by barrel bombs from helicopters.

Barrel bombs have become increasingly notorious during the civil war for their inaccurate nature and powerful destructive potential. They amount to little more than an oil drum packed full of explosives and rolled out of a helicopter, and tend to careen out of control when the explosives start going off, sometimes taking out bystanders blocks away from the intended target.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.