Air strikes pound rebel-held areas of Aleppo, thousands flee under cover of darkness

At least 20 air strikes hit rebel-held areas of Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, in the ninth straight day of violence in which bombardments by both sides have killed nearly 250 civilians, a monitoring group said.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights did not immediately say whether Syrian government warplanes or Russian jets, which have been supporting Damascus, carried out the strikes.

Bombing by the government side on rebel-held areas of Aleppo since April 22 have killed 140 people including 19 children, the Observatory said.
Insurgent shelling of government-held areas over the same period have killed 96 people, including 21 children, it said.

Thousands of Aleppans have fled in the last 72 hours, according to Ismail al-Abdullah, an activist living in the city who said people are afraid of what is to come.

“Many gather between 5 and 6am under the cover of darkness, before they can be spotted by the planes,” he told this paper.

The 7am regime air strikes which have recently been pounding the rebel side of the city - where some 200,000 still live - have become a grim routine, he said.

More than 30 more strikes were counted before midday on Saturday, adding six more lives to the mounting death toll.

John Kerry, US Secretary of State, had said if the ceasefire and peace talks in Geneva collapsed, America would put into action its “Plan B”, which included supplying moderate rebels more powerful weapons such as shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that would render Russian warplanes vulnerable.