Several dozen people were killed, as many as 53 according to some reports, in a new flurry of Syrian airstrikes against the al-Qaeda-held neighborhoods in the contested northern city of Aleppo. Many of the casualties were civilians.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights issued a report putting the death toll at 32, also putting the civilian toll at 16 killed in a single barrel bomb strike against the Qaterji neighborhood. Multiple barrel bombings were reported.
The White Helmets volunteers reported at least 40 airstrikes against the neighborhoods, and some factions claimed “dozens” of barrel bombs alone. Barrel bombs have been intermittently used by the Syrian Air Force as cheap, albeit unguided, bombs.
The lack of guiding on a barrel bomb, and the fact that oil barrels full of metal and explosives were never meant to be bombs in the first place, means they tend to careen off course, and have often caused large numbers of civilian casualties.