Syrian family of six among dozens killed in Aleppo attacks

The medics said the al-Baytounji family had suffocated to death because the barrel bomb, which fell in the Sakhour district at about midnight, had been laced with chlorine gas. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, could not confirm that chlorine gas was used. 

Rebel shelling killed at least seven children among 10 deaths in the Saria Hasoun school in al-Farqan district, Syrian television and the Observatory reported. 

Hundreds of people have been killed since Tuesday in one of the heaviest bombardments of the country’s civil war, now in its sixth year, as the government and its allies attempt to quash resistance in Aleppo’s rebel-held eastern zone. Syria’s military and Russia’s air force had observed a unilateral pause in the bombardment of eastern Aleppo, except for on the frontlines, after a month-long offensive from late September to late October, but recommenced strikes on Tuesday. 

An inquiry by the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has found that Syrian government forces have used chlorine gas in barrel bombs at least three times during the war, though Damascus denies it. Syria also denies using barrel bombs - improvised ordnance made by oil drums filled with high explosive and shrapnel and dropped from helicopters. Their use has been condemned by the UN for causing unnecessary suffering. Staffan De Mistura, the envoy of the United Nations secretary general, arrived in Damascus for talks with Syrian Foreign Ministry officials today with Aleppo on the agenda.