BEIRUT — Syrian warplanes dumped explosive-laden barrel bombs over opposition-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, the fourth day of a relentless offensive to drive rebels out of the contested city, activists said. The assault has killed more than 165 people in the first three days, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group. The intensity of the campaign suggests that President Bashar Al-Assad's government is trying to crush opposition in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once its commercial hub, ahead of an international peace conference scheduled for late January in Switzerland. Aleppo has been a major front in Syria's civil war since the rebels launched an offensive there in mid-2012, and the city has since been carved into opposition- and government-held areas. Some of the barrels dumped Wednesday exploded near a school and a student dormitory said Aleppo-based activist Abu Al-Hassan Marea. He said the military aircraft unloaded their volatile cargo over four Aleppo neighborhoods. Along with the observatory, other activist groups such as the Local Coordinating Committees and the Aleppo Media Center also reported the bombing. No one had information on the casualties inflicted in Wednesday's bombing. Marea told The Associated Press over Skype that one barrel struck near the Ahmad Al-Qassar school, but that the bombing was so intense he couldn't go out to check for casualties. War-weary activists in Aleppo say the four-day offensive has been the most intense they've seen in the city since the beginning of the uprising against Assad in March 2011. The international aid group Doctors Without Borders warned on Tuesday that Aleppo hospitals have been overwhelmed with casualties. — AP
