BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian army helicopters dropped two barrel bombs on a crowded square in the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 25 civilians as they sat on a bus and collected water, activists said Friday.
The attacks Thursday night by government forces on the rebel-held city came hours after rebels bombarded the capital, Damascus, killing nine people.
Three sources provided different minimum death tolls from the barrel-bomb attacks in Aleppo. Disparate casualty figures are common in Syria’s civil war, especially in the immediate aftermath of big attacks.
An activist group called the Local Coordination Committees said at least 25 died. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 27 died.
And an Aleppo-based activist, Ahmad al-Ahmad, said 47 were killed in total. He said 27 died in or near a crowded bus, while 10 others were killed as they waited to collect water from a public tanker, and 10 more died later as ambulances ferried scores of wounded to hospitals.
The attack in Aleppo coincided with a wider government counteroffensive against rebel positions. Other activists reported that Syrian airstrikes on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus claimed more than 80 lives Thursday.