The most recent government air strikes killed more than 40 people on Sunday when "barrel bombs" were dropped from Syrian army helicopters in Aleppo, an area divided by rebel and government rule, according to the Associated Press.
The strikes led by President Bashar-al Assad's government have been deemed illegal by Human Rights Watch groups because they are hitting civilian areas in Aleppo, which has come under attack since Dec. 15, according to the AP.
The explosive devices being used are barrels filled with oil or explosives that are dropped from the back of helicopters with no accurate targeting and can cause huge amount of damage and civilian casualties, the AP reported.
"The Syrian air force is either criminally incompetent, doesn't care whether it kills scores of civilians, or deliberately targets civilian areas," HRW senior emergency researcher Ole Solvang said in a report, according to Reuters.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another human rights group monitoring the situation in Aleppo, said numerous air raids have targeted civilian districts in Aleppo, including in Hanano where at least six children were killed, according to Reuters.
"They hit a convoy of cars on a road in Hanano, many cars were destroyed. There were civilians there," Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory told Reuters.
The violence has lasted two and a half years between rebels and Assad's forces and has killed more than 100,000 people, according to the AP.
On Monday, another government air strike targeting "rebel held areas of Northern Syria" hit Azaz, a town on the border or Turkey, and killed 15 people, the AP reported. The government claim they are attempting to regain control of areas taken over by rebels in 2012 through these air strikes.
Abdelrahman said since the barrel bombs began on Dec. 15 more than 300 people have died, including 87 children and 30 women. Out of the dead, only 30 have been rebel fighters, the AP reported. He added that 189 people were killed in the first four days of the barrel bombings and 879 were injured.
