New | Syria's 'barrel bombs' kill 250 people in a week as forces fight over Aleppo, say activists
A suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a Syrian prison on Thursday and rebels stormed in behind him, freeing hundreds of inmates as part of an offensive aimed at capturing key government symbols around the northern city of Aleppo, activists said.
Government forces, meanwhile, dropped crude “barrel bombs” in deadly airstrikes as both sides escalated their fight for the strategic city ahead of a second round of peace talks set for next week. Opposition leaders threatened to suspend the talks over the barrel bombings.
[Ban Ki-moon] is following with deep concern the continued armed escalation in Syria, most deplorably the ... use of ‘barrel bombs’ to brutal, devastating effect
In the past six days alone, the makeshift weapons – containers packed with explosives, fuel and scrap metal – have killed more than 250 people in Aleppo, including 73 children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
They include at least 11 who died Thursday, six of them from the same family, in the opposition-held neighbourhood of Masaken Hanano.
Videos uploaded by activists showed the aftermath, including men weeping amid ravaged buildings and corpses covered with blankets on the pavement.
“Be careful. There’s a corpse under your feet. … It’s a child!” someone shouted.