Syria bloodshed: Army pummels Aleppo with barrel bombs, over 100 killed

At least 121 people died in bombardments using barrels of explosives dropped from helicopters on the weekend by the Syrian army over various sites in northern Aleppo province.

Zee Media Bureau Aleppo: Syrian regime on Sunday attacked the rebel-held districts of Syria with a barrage of barrel bombs, killing over 100 over the weekend, as per the UK-bases watchdog count. At least 90, including 13 children were killed on Saturday and 36 (including 17 children) on Sunday when the Syrian Army helicopters bombarded various neighbourhoods in Aleppo province, said the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.  Thus a total of at least 126 people were killed over the last two days in Aleppo alone. January was one of the bloodiest months in the ongoing conflict and the number of people killed in Syria`s civil war has reached over 136,000 the UK-based NGO said on Saturday. The aftermath of the deadly barrel bomb attacks was vivid in some unverified videos posted online by the opposition activists which presented an elegiac spectacle of tragic chaos and panic as people rushed to the bleeding victims. A video showed men dragging a charred victim out of a smashed building. "You want a political solution? Here is a political solution!" shouted one man as he pointed at two charred bodies on the rubble-strewn ground. The man was referring to last week`s conference in Switzerland between government officials and opposition activists seeking to resolve Syria`s war, which began as a peaceful uprising in March 2011 against Assad. The man was referring to last week`s conference in Switzerland between government officials and opposition activists seeking to resolve Syria`s war, which began as a peaceful uprising in March 2011 against Assad.

The conference did not produce any tangible results, but is likely to lead to backdoor negotiations. In Aleppo, the raids with barrel bombs, as the crude weapons are known, have flattened residential buildings, forcing defenders to flee and allowing government troops to advance. The barrel bombing in Aleppo comes as Syrian government forces try retake the city, which has been divided into government- and opposition-held areas since mid-2012. Over the past few weeks, government troops have fought their way to two rebel-held neighborhoods of Karam Tarrad and Karam Qaser, mostly by flattening residential buildings with barrel bombs, activists said. Syrian troops have also taken advantage of infighting between a loose alliance of rebel brigades against an al Qaeda-linked group, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which is widely despised by other rebel groups and activists. Since the Syrian conflict broke out in March 2011, over one lakh people have been killed according to the UN. Also, over 2.5 million people require humanitarian aid and more than 250,000 have been displaced.