36 Dead in Aleppo Air Raids after 85 Killed on Saturday
At least 36 people were killed Sunday in regime air strikes and aerial attacks with explosive-packed barrels on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime aircraft carried out a series of deadly air strikes for a second day in eastern parts of the city.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse that most of the dead were killed in several raids in which regime helicopters dropped so-called barrel bombs on the Tariq al-Bab district.
He said 21 people were killed in three strikes in the eastern neighborhood, among them 13 children.
The other deaths were in additional air strikes and barrel bomb attacks in the city, which is divided between regime and rebel control.
The latest bloodshed comes a day after at least 85 people were killed in a string of barrel bomb attacks and aerial raids, according to the Observatory.
The Britain-based group relies on a network of activists and other sources on the ground for its reporting.
Government troops have been advancing in the area around Aleppo city, once the country's economic hub.
The al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the government, said Sunday that government troops had seized control of most of the east Karam al-Turab district -- which the Observatory confirmed.
The newspaper said troops were seeking to take control of several eastern and northern districts in a bid to recapture large swathes of the city, where fighting began in mid-2012.
In recent months, the army has seized parts of the province from rebels, including the area around Aleppo airport, which was closed for nearly a year because of fighting nearby.
The airport was reopened to air traffic last month.
The newspaper said "vast military operations" were also underway to capture the majority Turkmen town of Zara in central Homs province, near the famed Krak des Chevaliers castle and the Lebanese border.
The Observatory confirmed the army had seized most of Karam al-Turab, and said fierce fighting was underway around Zara.
It also seven people, six men and a women had been killed in a regime air raid on the town of Mleha, southeast of Damascus.
The latest violence came the day after Syrian government and opposition delegations wrapped up peace talks in Geneva without tangible results or a government commitment to return to the table.
On Sunday, state news agency SANA carried scathing remarks from deputy foreign minister Faisal al-Muqdad, who accused the opposition of being "mercenaries manipulated by foreign forces."
Al-Watan added that the conflict had "transferred to the political and diplomatic field, which is one that the Syrians know well."
"Syria has a strong army of diplomats and politicians who can defeat all those they face," the paper said.
A top international goal for the talks was greater humanitarian access, particularly in besieged areas like the Old City of Homs.
No deal was forthcoming and Western nations are now planning a U.N. Security Council resolution on the issue, as well as possibly on the slow pace of a program to move Syria's chemical weapons out of the country.
Despite not being on the agenda at the talks, aid has entered the besieged Palestinian refugee camp Yarmuk on the outskirts of Damascus.
On Sunday, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA distributed hundreds of food parcels for the fourth consecutive day.
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said 3,420 food parcels had been delivered to the estimated 18,000 people trapped in the camp since the agency gained access to it on January 18.
More than 136,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict began in March 2011.
Source: Agence France Presse
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