Story highlights
Opposition group says airstrikes continue in Aleppo
More than 500 people have been killed since December 15, opposition says
Aleppo is a stronghold for the rebels
A deadly air offensive that has claimed more than 500 lives in the Syrian city of Aleppo continues, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees.
The group, which is opposed to the Syrian government, said that at least 30 people were killed and dozens injured in airstrikes on the Sukari neighborhood of Aleppo. Another neighborhood, Qibalia, was also shelled, the LCC said.
The Syrian government has continued to fire relentlessly on rebel-held sections of the city after days of continued air assaults.
One civilian in Sukari interviewed by the group claimed that the military used thermobaric weapons to target the area. Thermobaric weapons, also known as “vacuum bombs,” are effective at spreading destruction through urban areas, according to military experts.
The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is also accused of dropping barrel bombs – drums packed with explosives and shrapnel – on Aleppo.
A video posted on YouTube claims to show a barrel bomb that did not explode in Aleppo.
“Thank God the bomb didn’t explode,” a man on the video says. “We survived the strike; others didn’t.”
Since December 15, more than 500 people have been killed in Aleppo, a rebel stronghold, the LCC said.
CNN cannot independently verify daily death tolls, but the United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria since 2011.
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