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Thirty-six people, nearly half of them children, were killed on Sunday (December 15) when Syrian army helicopters dropped improvised "barrel bombs" on the disputed northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Video uploaded by local activists showed a fire in a narrow street covered in debris and dust after one air raid in the Karam el-Beik district. Another showed blackened and twisted wreckage of a vehicle at a busy roundabout.
The Britain-based Observatory said at least 15 of the casualties on Sunday were children.
Barrel bombs are explosive-filled cylinders or oil barrels, often rolled out of the back of helicopters with little attempt at striking a particular target but capable of causing widespread casualties and significant damage.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces, battling rebels in a 2-1/2 year conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people
