At least 19 killed in Assad airstrikes on Aleppo, Idlib

(Zaman Al WASL)- Syrian regime warplanes dropped barrel bombs and vacuum missiles on opposition-held districts of Aleppo and Idlib provinces on Thursday, killing at least 19 people, including 6 children, Zaman al-Wasl reporter said.

11 people were killed, including one child, and dozens wounded after the strikes on the Qadi Askar and al-Marjeh neighborhoods of Aleppo. Some of the wounded, who were in a serious condition, have been moved to Turkey, the reporter said.  

Syria's regime has waged a fierce aerial offensive against rebel-held areas of Aleppo since December 2013.

Elsewhere, 8 people were killed, including 5 children, in vacuum missiles attack on an elementary school in Beera Armanaz village in the northern countryside of Idlib.

On Wednesday, Syrian rebels attacked regime’s Air Force Intelligence building in the northern city of Aleppo, bombing it and then launching a ground assault, Reuters said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 20 members of the security forces and 14 insurgents were killed in the attack on the Air Force Intelligence building.

Jihadist groups including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and the Muhajireen and Ansar army claimed responsibility for the attack, which partly destroyed the building.

Initial reports suggested the insurgents had set off the bomb in a tunnel dug under or near the building in Aleppo, which has long been a focus of fighting between government and insurgent groups.

Rebel sources and a combatant fighting on the government side confirmed that part of the building had been destroyed in the attack on the western outskirts of Aleppo.

Air Force Intelligence is widely viewed as one of the most powerful arms of the Syrian security establishment.

Aleppo, around 50 km (30 miles) south of the border with Turkey, is divided between government forces and insurgent groups fighting to topple Bashar al-Assad in a four-year-old conflict estimated to have killed 220,000 people. (With agencies)