By Halit Suleyman
ALEPPO, Syria: 15 people were killed and another 20 injured in attacks carried out by regime helicopters in an opposition-held area of Syria's northwestern Aleppo province Wednesday.
"Syrian regime helicopters struck Aleppo city’s Al-Shaar neighborhood with barrel bombs," Necip Ensari, a local civil defense official, said.
Ensari said regime helicopters had dropped three barrel bombs in an area that contains a hospital and a marketplace.
Ensari added that women and children were among the casualties and that the hospital had been rendered inoperable by the attack.
He added that rescue workers were now in the process of searching for survivors buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Barrel bombs are improvised containers packed with shrapnel and explosive material. Usually dropped from army helicopters, the low-cost munitions are believed to have killed thousands of people since the Syria conflict began in 2011.
AA
