People gather at the scene after Syrian government forces allegedly dropped barrel bombs on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. Photo / AFP
People gather at the scene after Syrian government forces allegedly dropped barrel bombs on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. Photo / AFP
Air force drops explosive devices on civilians in crowded market and town.
The Syrian Air Force dropped barrel bombs on a market and another civilian area of Aleppo province, killing 71 people.
The barrels, packed with explosives and shrapnel, were dropped on a crowded market in the town of al-Bab and then on al-Shaar, a civilian district of the city of Aleppo.
The attacks killed 59 shoppers in al-Bab - an area now controlled by Isis (Islamic State). A further 12 people were killed in al-Shaar, including women and children from the same family, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Photographs and videos showed bloodied corpses in the rubble of buildings as panic-stricken civilians searched for loved ones.
"This is one of the biggest massacres that regime planes have committed since the beginning of 2015," said the Syrian Revolution General Commission, an activist group.
Though the high death toll yesterday was notable, the way it was inflicted was not: barrel bomb attacks have become commonplace for residents of rebel-controlled Aleppo.
Meanwhile, Isis has established a "ministry of antiquities" to maximise the profits from looting priceless artefacts across the territory it controls.
The trade has raised tens of millions of dollars for Isis - a sum comparable to the profit the terrorists have made by the kidnapping and ransom of Western hostages.
Since its lightning sweep through Iraq and Syria last year, Isis has sought to transform itself into an organisation capable of ruling its own state, setting up an elaborate hierarchy of leadership and ministries.
But while elsewhere in the Middle East, ministries of this kind try to protect antiquities, Isis' version was established to pillage and smuggle these treasures in a territory replete with classical ruins.
"They happened upon a pre-existing situation of looting and turned it into a highly organised trade," said Amr al-Azm, a former official in the Syrian Antiquities Ministry who now runs a network of archaeologists and activists to document the destruction of the country's treasures.
In Iraq, the jihadists have desecrated and looted the Assyrian remains at Mosul, Nimrud and Hatra. Last month they captured the Roman city of Palmyra in Syria, raisingfears that it may suffer the same treatment.
When Isis set up its self-described "Islamic Caliphate", it imposed a 20 per cent tax on looted antiquities. The jihadists then tried to gain control of the trade by regulating access to ancient sites.
A man evacuates a child from a building following a reported barrel bomb attack by Syrian government forces. Photo / AP
In some areas, workers have been contracted to carry out digs, helped by local archaeologists who identify the most lucrative sites.
Assad regime's rain of terror Barrel bombs are normally rolled out of military helicopters hovering over rebel-held cities. Use of these unguided weapons breaks international humanitarian law.
A United Nations resolution passed in February last year declared use of barrel bombs illegal and threatened retaliation if Syria's regime continued using them. As many as 5500 people have since been killed by the bombs.
Amnesty International believes the regime has been emboldened by the lack of repercussions.
The inaccuracy of barrel bombs means helicopters rarely drop them close to frontlines for fear of killing their own men. Instead they spread fear and chaos among civilians in areas under rebel control.
