(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Twenty-six children were among the 115 civilians killed in three days of Syrian government airstrikes, a monitoring group said yesterday, that mainly targeted Islamic State strongholds in the north and east.
But other rebel-held areas were also hit in the bombardments - 474 airstrikes in three days - said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that relies on a network of activists inside Syria.
The regime air force has killed thousands of people since it was first deployed in the war in July 2012.
Helicopters and war planes dropped barrel bombs - steel drums full of shrapnel and explosives - on residential and industrial areas in the city of al Bab and neighbouring Qabaseen, northeast of Aleppo, on Thursday and overnight, locals said.
"People were going about scraping a living and there were no armed groups in the market, only poor people. Why is Assad killing us? May God bring vengeance on him," said Yousef al-Saadi, a resident of Qabaseen and a volunteer with the local civil defence group who was contacted on Skype.
"There have been unprecedented air raids across Syria in the last three days where the regime seeks to make gains on the ground to improve its negotiating stance in future political talks," Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Observatory, said.
Activists accuse the government of killing more civilians than jihadists in the raids.
The UN and international rights groups have repeatedly called on the government to refrain from using its air force against inhabited areas.
The country's multi-sided civil war has killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced half of its population.
A US-led military coalition is carrying out regular air strikes against the Islamic State group, which has seized large areas in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
On Thursday, about 60 jihadists were killed in fighting with Kurdish forces for control of territory in northern Syria, according to the Observatory.
Meanwhile, the fate of a Jordanian pilot, whose jet was shot down near the north-eastern city of al-Raqqa on Wednesday by the Islamic State, was unknown.
The group said it was holding Maaz al-Kassasbeh, a 26-year-old first lieutenant in the Jordanian Air Force, hostage. He is the first known allied servicemen to have been taken hostage by the Islamic State since the US and Arab allies started an aerial campaign against the extremist group in Syria in September.
The Jordanian Army said yesterday that its initial investigation showed the plane had not been brought down by the militants.
"But since the wreckage of the plane is not reachable and since its pilot is not present, we cannot determine the exact cause of the crash," the army said.
Al-Kassasbeh's father has pleaded for his release. "I address a message to our generous brothers of the Islamic State in Syria: To host my son ... with generous hospitality. We are all Muslims.
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