BEIRUT — Activists say Syrian forces have dropped a crude bomb on a mosque in a rebel-held neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least five people, including children. Activist Hassoun Abu Faisal of the Aleppo Media Center says the mosque in the Masaken Hanano area was also used as a school and that children were inside when it was hit on Tuesday with a barrel bomb — a crude device packed with fuel and scraps of metal. The Local Coordinating Committees, another activist group, says five people were killed. It wasn't immediately clear how many were children. President Bashar Al-Assad's troops have pounded opposition areas of the divided city since mid-December, intensifying their efforts to seize rebel-held parts of Aleppo. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the bombings. Over the weekend, the Observatory said 85 people were killed in a single day of air strikes and barrel bomb attacks on Saturday. The fierce air campaign has prompted an exodus of civilians from rebel-held areas in the east and north of Aleppo. But fighting between rebels and militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant throughout Aleppo province has left those fleeing with few escape routes. Some have fled to Turkey, while others are seeking to enter the government-controlled part of Aleppo, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Observatory, a Britain-based group that relies on a network of activists and other witnesses inside Syria. The Aleppo Media Centre said "people are fleeing in large numbers." Some neighborhoods "have become like ghost towns, with shops closed and residents leaving their homes." The aerial assault comes as regime forces on the ground try to capture districts in the east and north of the city. In recent months, the army has recaptured some territory in Aleppo province, including around Aleppo international airport. Syria's second city and onetime commercial hub has been divided since a major rebel offensive in the summer of 2012, and much of the city's historic Old Town has been demolished in the fighting. – Agencies
