Regime air strikes killed dozens of civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo and nearby areas Friday as the UN Security Council prepared to discuss emergency aid drops to besieged areas.
The raids were the most intense in more than a month, with dozens of barrel bombs -- crude, unguided explosive devices -- dropped on several rebel-held eastern districts of the city, an AFP correspondent said.
Ten people were killed when a bus they were travelling in was hit on the Castello road, a key rebel supply route out of Aleppo, the civil defence said.
At least 28 other civilians were killed in regime strikes on several neighbourhoods in the rebel-held east of the city, said the civil defence, known as the White Helmets.
"There are people under the rubble and we're still looking for the missing," a civil defence volunteer who gave his name as Khaled said.
AFP footage showed a building in the city's east whose front had been blown off and bulldozers were clearing debris from the roads.
A man wearing medical gloves stood in a room surrounded by white body bags, one with blood seeping through.
Official news agency SANA said rebel rocket fire killed two children in the regime-controlled west of the city.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Castello road was now "effectively cut".
"All movement is targeted, be that buses or bystanders," its head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
- 'Security challenges' -
Nearly 600,000 people are estimated to live under siege in Syria, most of them encircled by forces of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, whose approval the UN says is needed to deliver aid by air.
Last month the UN said that if it did not see an improvement on aid access to besieged areas by June 1, it would task its food agency to carry out drops.
The Security Council convened in New York on Friday, with UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura and UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien reporting to the body.
Officials have stressed the challenges and risks of aid operations in the skies above a country at war.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said helicopters would have to be used to transport aid to 15 of 19 besieged areas that include densely populated towns.
"In urban areas, airdrops are not feasible, so you are talking about the use of helicopters," he said.
"Each helicopter with about three metric tons on board would actually have to land and off-load," he added.
"One can imagine the security challenges for that -- plus the security challenges of flying helicopters over the skies of Syria."
The World Food Programme said that high-altitude airdrops to urban or semi-urban areas such as hunger-stricken Madaya and Daraya "are not possible owing to the risk of harming people on the ground".
- Advance on IS -
If land access is not granted to 15 of the besieged areas, "helicopter operations are the only viable option", it added.
Allowing aid into areas under siege is key to the resumption of peace talks on ending the five-year war that has killed 280,000 Syrians and displaced millions.
The United Nations will on Sunday present a formal request to the Syrian government to approve airdrops, diplomats at the closed Security Council meeting said.
"The top priority is to get those who have influence over Damascus, starting with Russia, to strongly increase their pressure on the regime," French ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre said as he headed into the meeting.
A truce brokered by Russia and the United States between the government and non-jihadist rebels has been violated nearly continuously around Aleppo.
More than 300 civilians were killed in Aleppo in two weeks from April 22 as rebels pounded regime-controlled neighbourhoods with rocket and artillery fire and the regime hit rebel areas with air raids.
In northern Syria, a US-backed alliance of Kurds and Arabs is advancing towards the town of Manbij, held by the Islamic State jihadist group.
The Observatory, a Britain-based monitor relying on sources inside Syria for information, said on Thursday several families of IS foreign fighters had fled Manbij and Jarabulus towards Raqa city.
The US-led coalition also dropped ammunition, light weapons and anti-tank weapons to Syrian rebels within the past 24 hours as they try to prevent IS jihadists from entering the town of Marea in Aleppo province, the Observatory said.
A US official confirmed the ammunition drops, but denied that they also contained weapons.
Regime air strikes killed dozens of civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo and nearby areas Friday as the UN Security Council prepared to discuss emergency aid drops to besieged areas.
The raids were the most intense in more than a month, with dozens of barrel bombs — crude, unguided explosive devices — dropped on several rebel-held eastern districts of the city, an AFP correspondent said.
Ten people were killed when a bus they were travelling in was hit on the Castello road, a key rebel supply route out of Aleppo, the civil defence said.
At least 28 other civilians were killed in regime strikes on several neighbourhoods in the rebel-held east of the city, said the civil defence, known as the White Helmets.
“There are people under the rubble and we’re still looking for the missing,” a civil defence volunteer who gave his name as Khaled said.
AFP footage showed a building in the city’s east whose front had been blown off and bulldozers were clearing debris from the roads.
A man wearing medical gloves stood in a room surrounded by white body bags, one with blood seeping through.
Official news agency SANA said rebel rocket fire killed two children in the regime-controlled west of the city.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Castello road was now “effectively cut”.
“All movement is targeted, be that buses or bystanders,” its head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
– ‘Security challenges’ –
Nearly 600,000 people are estimated to live under siege in Syria, most of them encircled by forces of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, whose approval the UN says is needed to deliver aid by air.
Last month the UN said that if it did not see an improvement on aid access to besieged areas by June 1, it would task its food agency to carry out drops.
The Security Council convened in New York on Friday, with UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura and UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien reporting to the body.
Officials have stressed the challenges and risks of aid operations in the skies above a country at war.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said helicopters would have to be used to transport aid to 15 of 19 besieged areas that include densely populated towns.
“In urban areas, airdrops are not feasible, so you are talking about the use of helicopters,” he said.
“Each helicopter with about three metric tons on board would actually have to land and off-load,” he added.
“One can imagine the security challenges for that — plus the security challenges of flying helicopters over the skies of Syria.”
The World Food Programme said that high-altitude airdrops to urban or semi-urban areas such as hunger-stricken Madaya and Daraya “are not possible owing to the risk of harming people on the ground”.
– Advance on IS –
If land access is not granted to 15 of the besieged areas, “helicopter operations are the only viable option”, it added.
Allowing aid into areas under siege is key to the resumption of peace talks on ending the five-year war that has killed 280,000 Syrians and displaced millions.
The United Nations will on Sunday present a formal request to the Syrian government to approve airdrops, diplomats at the closed Security Council meeting said.
“The top priority is to get those who have influence over Damascus, starting with Russia, to strongly increase their pressure on the regime,” French ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre said as he headed into the meeting.
A truce brokered by Russia and the United States between the government and non-jihadist rebels has been violated nearly continuously around Aleppo.
More than 300 civilians were killed in Aleppo in two weeks from April 22 as rebels pounded regime-controlled neighbourhoods with rocket and artillery fire and the regime hit rebel areas with air raids.
In northern Syria, a US-backed alliance of Kurds and Arabs is advancing towards the town of Manbij, held by the Islamic State jihadist group.
The Observatory, a Britain-based monitor relying on sources inside Syria for information, said on Thursday several families of IS foreign fighters had fled Manbij and Jarabulus towards Raqa city.
The US-led coalition also dropped ammunition, light weapons and anti-tank weapons to Syrian rebels within the past 24 hours as they try to prevent IS jihadists from entering the town of Marea in Aleppo province, the Observatory said.
A US official confirmed the ammunition drops, but denied that they also contained weapons.
