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34 Dead in Rebel Rocket Fire on Syria's Aleppo
[AnNahar] Rebel rocket fire killed at least 34 civilians in Aleppo in one of the bloodiest days of the conflict for government-held areas of Syria's second city, a monitoring group said Tuesday.

The barrage drew condemnation from U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura, who arrived in Damascus on Monday to meet government officials for a fresh round of peace talks.

Twelve children were among the dead as Islamist rebel factions pounded western neighborhoods of the city with more than 300 rockets on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Right said.

Control of the city is divided between rebels in the east, and forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
in the west.

Both sides frequently bombard each other but Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that Monday's deaths marked "one of the highest tolls in opposition attacks in Aleppo city".

"The number of deaths is likely to rise, as there are roughly 190 people maimed, including dozens at death's door with serious wounds," he said.

"With dead and maimed combined, it adds up to the most violent day for government-controlled parts of Aleppo city in the whole war."

In a statement released on Tuesday, the U.N. envoy "strongly condemned the... indiscriminate attack on civilians in the city of Aleppo" but urged the government to refrain from any reprisals against rebel-held areas.

"While strongly condemning this very grave attack on civilians by armed opposition forces, the special envoy reaffirms that this should not justify in any case a retaliation on populated areas through barrel bombs by the Syrian government", a statement said.

Barrel bombs are crude weapons, made of containers packed with explosives and scrap metal, that are typically dropped from helicopters and are one of the regime's weapons of choice.

Their use has been criticized by human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
groups because of the indiscriminate corpse count they cause among civilians when dropped on residential areas.

Last year, de Mistura proposed a "freeze" on fighting in Aleppo as a first step towards local ceasefires across Syria.

But the rebels rejected the proposal and the government has continued to pound rebel-held areas of the city with deadly air strikes.
Posted by: trailing wife 2015-06-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=420796