By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the Syrian Civil War using a network of sources on the ground in Syria, reported Sunday that at least nine people, including five children were killed by airstrikes which hit a school in the rebel-held area of Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo. Regime forces have denied the report saying that the army had stepped up attacks on rebels since the insurgents bombarded a government-held residential area in the northwestern city on Saturday. But he said the military had not targeted civilians.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in the United Kingdom, released a video it says shows the aftermath of the deadly attack. In the video a man is seen holding what he says is the severed lower leg and foot of a young child, and rescue workers were shown carrying away what appeared to be a body wrapped in a sheet. According to the Observatory, at least 32 people were killed in Aleppo on Saturday, 17 of them in the government-held district of Suleimaniyah bombarded by rebels, and 15 of them in an army air strike that later hit a market in a rebel-held area. The organization added that a number of people were seriously wounded and the death toll is likely to rise.

The airstrikes that hit the school came just a day after the monitoring group and Syrian state rune media (SANA) reported shelling by Syrian rebels on a government-held neighborhood in Aleppo. Footage aired on Syrian state television on Saturday showing damaged buildings and injured people being treated at an overcrowded local hospital.

State TV media reported the shelling targeted the predominantly Christian and Armenian neighborhood of Suleimaniyah in Aleppo killing nine people and wounding 50. SANA also reported that several buildings were severely damaged and people were likely still trapped under the ruble.

Just hours after the shelling Syrian helicopters gunships targeted a market in Aleppo’s rebel-held neighborhood of Maadi in an apparent retaliation by the Syrian government, according to both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the opposition-run Aleppo Media Centre. The Observatory reported that ten people were killed in the attack and dozens more were badly injured.

Aleppo has a major frontline in the four-year-old Syrian civil war, a conflict that has killed an estimated 220,000 people. The city, 30 miles from the Turkish border, is divided between government and rebel control.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – ‘Children Killed’ In Syria’s Aleppo School Bombing – April 12, 2015

Al Arabiya – Five Children Dead in Air Strike on School in Syria’s Aleppo – 12 April 2015

Reuters – Monitor Says Syrian Army Bombs Aleppo School – 12 April 2015

Sky News Australia – Nine People Killed During Syria Air Strikes – 12 April 2015