Syrian Bombs Kill Dozens, Activists Say

Dec. 16, 2013 3:17 p.m. ET

People observed the damage from what activists said were military bombings on Sunday that killed civilians. Aleppo Media Center/Associated Press

Syrian government helicopters dropped explosives- and shrapnel-packed steel barrels over Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, killing more than 70 men, women and children in one day, human-rights groups and activists said Monday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, led by a Syrian expatriate who counts the Syrian war’s death toll through a network of informants in the country, said that 76 people including 28 children and several women were killed Sunday in the attacks.
Activists in Aleppo, in the country’s north, said in Skype interviews that local hospitals documented close to 130 deaths in the bombings and that new bombings deaths occurred Monday.
Either way, Sunday’s death toll was one of the highest in recent months for a single day in Aleppo, a vital battleground in the war, which has been divided since last year between various rebel factions and the government.
The Syrian government didn’t comment, but Syrian state media said Monday that “dozens of terrorists were killed or wounded” in fresh military offensives in and around Aleppo on Sunday, not mentioning any civilian deaths or explosive barrels. State media refers to rebels as terrorists.
Meanwhile, Russia cited the conclusion of a United Nations report last week that Syrian government soldiers were likely victims of sarin gas to charge that rebels were responsible for at least three chemical-arms attacks.
Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, said the report—which didn’t assign blame—provided evidence that “it was not the Syrian government that was using chemical weapons.”
Mr. Churkin told a Security Council meeting the Syrian government wouldn’t have asked the U.N. to investigate an attack near Aleppo on March 19 if it had used chemical arms. He accused the U.S., Britain and France of trying to derail that investigation.
Neither Britain, France nor the U.S. reacted publicly to the final U.N. investigators’ report or to Mr. Churkin’s comments. Western diplomats have said they believe the poisoning of Syrian soldiers in the Aleppo incident was a result of friendly fire.
The U.S. has blamed the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a chemical-gas massacre in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on Aug. 21 that killed hundreds of people.
The outcry over that event led to a September deal between Russia, the U.S. and Syria to eliminate its chemical-weapons stockpile by the middle of 2014.

CIVILIAN CASUALTY: A Syrian man carries the body of a child killed in what activists say was a government airstrike in Aleppo on Sunday, in a photo distributed by a Syrian opposition-media group and authenticated by the AP. Human-rights groups said the helicopter attack killed more than 70. Aleppo Media Center/Associated Press

In Aleppo, neither side has made clear advances for months, although the government and its allies, including the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, have succeeded in driving rebels out of towns and villages southeast of the city. Sunday’s violence appears to mark a new chapter in the government’s effort to dislodge the rebels from the city.
Rebels have also frequently targeted pro-regime neighborhoods in Aleppo with rockets and mortars, with the most recent attack this month killing nearly 20 people and wounding nearly 30.
More than 130,000 people have died in the 33-month conflict, international groups say.
On Monday, more steel barrels were dropped in the town of al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo, killing three people, activists said. “There were burned bodies and the smell of gunpowder,” said one activist who said he witnessed the bombings.

Unicef’s regional director Maria Calivis said the children’s organization was horrified by the reports. “It is absolutely unacceptable for children to be targeted in this manner, whether through the use of indiscriminate weapons resulting in mass casualties, or by any other means,” Ms. Calivis said in an email.
A steel industry official in Damascus with knowledge of these barrels said they are built from Soviet-made sea mines. Witnesses said some explode in the air but most explode upon hitting their target.The barrels are typically packed with screws, scrap metal, old car parts, blades and explosives, an activist said.

People walk past a damaged car at a site hit by what activists said was shelling from forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo. Reuters

In an Aleppo neighborhood called al-Antharat near Masaken Hanano, explosive barrels on Monday fell onto a school killing five children and three teachers, a second activist said in an interview. “These days, all the shelling is with the barrels,” he said. “We pray for those days of mortar fire.”
On Facebook and Twitter, a video showed a man crying as he carried a child whose clothes were covered in white cement dust in the rain to a car.
Others videos and photos circulated of injured children with bloodied faces covered in white dust. The videos, which couldn’t be verified, were said to contain images from Sunday’s bombings in Aleppo.
—Sam Dagher in Damascus and Joe Lauria at the United Nations contributed to this article.
Write to Rima Abushakra at rima.abushakra@wsj.com

Go here to see the original: Syrian Bombs Kill Dozens, Activists Say