Rebel fire kills 6 children in Aleppo

Syrian government forces walk in the
strategic area of the Bazo hilltop, north of
Khan Tuman on the southern outskirts of the
northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo as
they advance in the ongoing offensive to
seize the rebel-held eastern part of the city
on October 25, 2016. Government forces and
allied fighters are advancing on the southern
outskirts of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory
for Humman Rights reported, seizing
territory overlooking rebel-held areas. / AFP
PHOTO / GEORGE OURFALIAN
At least six children were killed and 15
injured in rebel rocket attacks in the
government-held west of Aleppo city on
Thursday, Syrian state media said.
A monitoring group said a child was also
among at least eight people killed in
government shelling on the rebel-held town
of Douma outside Damascus.
The rocket fire in Aleppo hit two
neighbourhoods in the west of the city,
with one of the attacks striking a school.
“Three children were killed and 14 students
were injured in a terrorist rocket attack on
the national school in the Shahba
neighbourhood of Aleppo,” state news
agency SANA reported.
It added that the attack also damaged the
school.
A second rocket attack hit a house in the
Hamdaniyeh neighbourhood, killing three
brothers and injuring a fourth, SANA said.
The two neighbourhoods are in the west of
the city, which has been roughly divided
since mid-2012, when rebels seized its
eastern half.
Rebels regularly fire crude homemade
rockets into government neighbourhoods,
often killing civilians.
Regime forces backed by ally Russia have
waged an aerial and ground assault since
late September to recapture eastern Aleppo,
killing hundreds of civilians and destroying
infrastructure including hospitals.
On Wednesday the UN children’s agency
UNICEF said 22 children had been killed
along with six teachers in air strikes on a
school in rebel-held Idlib province.
The strikes, carried out by either Russian
or Syrian warplanes according to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, hit the
village of Hass.
Moscow denied any involvement in the
raids.
The British-based Observatory, which has a
network of sources in Syria, gave a toll of 36
dead, among them 15 children and four
teachers.
The incident prompted outrage from
UNICEF director Anthony Lake.
“This is a tragedy. It is an outrage. And if
deliberate, it is a war crime,” he said,
adding that the school complex had been
hit repeatedly.
Outside Damascus meanwhile, at least eight
people were killed on Thursday in
government shelling on Douma in the rebel-
held Eastern Ghouta region, the
Observatory said.
Douma is regularly targeted by government
fire, and in recent months regime forces
have waged an offensive in the area, which
has also been under siege since 2013.
At a makeshift hospital in the town, an AFP
photographer saw medics using a
defibrillator on one man, his face speckled
with blood.
On a stretcher nearby, a wounded man lay
with his artificial leg detached and lying on
top of him, smeared with his blood.
More than 300,000 people have been killed
in Syria since the conflict began in March
2011 with anti-government protests.