BEIRUT — Syrian military helicopters dropped barrels packed with explosives in the government's latest air raids on rebel-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, killing at least 13 people including a family trapped in a burning car, activists said.
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 latest attack devastated three buildings in the al-Bab area of Aleppo, Hassoun Abu Faisal of the Aleppo Media Center said via Skype. Another local activist and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights corroborated the information.
