Regime aircraft kill five in NW Syria: Local sources

By Halit Suleyman and Sinan Polat

ALEPPO, Syria (AA) – Five people were killed and several others injured in attacks by Assad regime helicopters in opposition-held parts of Syria's northwestern Aleppo province on Tuesday.

According to local civil defense officials, regime helicopters struck Aleppo’s town of Al-Sahur with barrel bombs in the early hours of Tuesday.

Civil defense workers managed to rescue two people from the rubble of buildings destroyed by the attacks, the same sources, who spoke anonymously due to fears for their security, said.

Yaser Abu Ammar, an Aleppo-based activist, said local residents had been unable to perform tarawih (Ramadan night) prayers due to repeated attacks by regime warplanes and helicopters.

Ammar added that Russian and Syrian regime warplanes had been targeting positions inside the city -- mostly residential areas -- for the last 15 days.

For the last three years, the Syrian army has frequently attacked opposition-held parts of Aleppo province with scud missiles, barrel bombs and cluster munitions, destroying wide swathes of the province’s infrastructure.

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.

*Anadolu Agency Correspondent Sibel Ugurlu contributed this report from Ankara.