LATEST: UN Makes 1st Aid Airlift from Iraq to Syria
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At least 74 people were killed in and near Aleppo on Saturday, as the Syrian military resumed bombing after a two-day pause.
More than 25 civilians died when helicopters dropped barrel bombs — oil drums or cylinders filled with explosives — near a market and next to a hospital in the Tariq al-Bab section of Aleppo, killing at least 25 civilians, including children, activists reported.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission said the raid “targeted a crowded market where people were buying vegetables and home appliances”, with many buildings damaged and one collapsing.
The Shaam News Network said one of the casualties was Ahmad al-Hajji, an opposition activist. In a discussion on State TV in 2011, al-Hajji said, “Stop treating us like idiots,” calling on “all media [in Syria], both public and private…to show how the demonstrations are being suppressed. We should be protecting these demonstrations.”
The Local Coordination Committees claim that 133 people were killed across Syria yesterday. Of the dead, 24 were children and 8 were women.
Almost 500 people, almost all of them civilians, have died in regime bombing since December 14 in Aleppo Province.
UN Makes 1st Aid Airlift from Iraq to Syria
The United Nations said Sunday that it has completed its first aid airlift from Iraq to Syria.
“The last UNHCR cargo flight landed today at Qamishli airport [in northeast Syria] carrying assistance urgently needed by displaced persons,” the refugee agency UNHCR said.
The UNHCR, the World Food Program (WFP), and the children’s agency UNICEF began the 24-flight airlift on December 15. Almost 300 tons of aid was sent by the UNHCR to help more than 50,000 people, while WFP sent enough food to feed more than 30,000 people for a month and UNICEF provided “ealth kits, water, and sanitation equipment.
The UNHCR said it would continue overland aid shipments, dispatching 250 trucks with aid to support about 75,000 persons.
Report: Islamic State of Iraq Attacks Kafranbel Radio Station, Takes 6 Staff
Activists claim the Islamic State of Iraq and as-Sham have raided Radio Fresh in Kafranbel in Idlib Province, seizing all the equipment and abducting six staff.
The staff have now been released, but ISIS have not returned the equipment.
Journalist Abducted in Aleppo
Sources say gunmen stormed the opposition media outlet Shahba Press in Aleppo on Friday, kidnapping journalist Milad Shehabi.
Some outlets blamed the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria for the raid in the neighborhood of Masaken Hanano.
Shehabi’s brother Amir was arrested by the regime more than 18 months ago.
