BEIRUT: Syrian warplanes hit a popular market in a rebel-held district of Aleppo on Thursday killing at least 33 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Several people were also wounded in the attack on the market in the Halak neighbourhood of northeastern Aleppo, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
It also reported at least 21 people killed in clashes between the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other rebel groups including the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
Rebel-held areas of Aleppo have come under massive air assault since mid-December as government forces try to regain full control of Syria’s second city and one-time commercial hub.
“A Syrian fighter jet fired a missile at the (Halak) neighbourhood, and within minutes it fired another,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The Aleppo Media Centre run by local activists said that “two residential buildings were destroyed and several shops set ablaze”.
Activists posted a YouTube video showing an ambulance trying to make its way across rubble to the site and the facades of buildings badly damaged.
Youths are seen carrying the body of a man in a rug as others dig through rubble for victims.
A man is heard crying “Allahu akbar” (God is the greatest) as he picks up body parts and wraps them in clothing.