Aleppo Shelled as Syrian Humanitarian Crisis Worsens
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Syrian rebels shelled a government-held neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, Syrian state television and an activist group reported.
Footage aired on Syrian state television on Saturday showed damaged buildings and injured people being treated at the overcrowded local hospital.
State TV said the shelling on the predominantly Christian and Armenian neighborhood of Sulaymaniyah in Aleppo killed nine people, wounded another 50 and damaged several buildings. It said dozens of people were still trapped under rubble.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around the country, however, said the shelling killed 27 people and wounded many more.
Hours after the shelling, helicopter gunships struck a market in Aleppo's rebel-held neighborhood of Maadi in an apparent retaliation by the Syrian government, according to the observatory and the opposition-run Aleppo Media Centre.
The observatory said the airstrike killed ten people and wounded dozens, some seriously, Al Jazeera reported.
The Aleppo Media Centre reported casualties but did not provide a precise toll.
The violence came as the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees planned to undertake an "urgent mission" to Damascus on Saturday amid concerns over the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian camp of Yarmouk, most of which has been captured by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
Pierre Krahenbuhl, who heads the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, will discuss the situation in Yarmouk and meet with displaced refugees.
The visit is "prompted by UNRWA's deepening concerns for the safety and protection of some 18,000 Palestinian and Syrian civilians, including 3,500 children" who remain in the Yarmouk camp, the agency said in a statement.
