Syria regime barrel bombs kill 37 as ISIL pushes Hasakeh offensive

At least 37 people were killed in government barrel bomb attacks in northern Syria on jUNE 3, a monitoring group said, while in the northeast the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists neared the gates of provincial capital Hasakeh.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths came in three incidents, in Aleppo province in the north and Idlib province in the northwest.
 
In Tal Rifaat in Aleppo, 18 people were killed, including eight children, when government helicopters dropped at least four of the devices, the Britain-based monitor said.
 
In the rebel-held eastern neighbourhood of Jubb al-Qubbeh in Aleppo city, 11 civilians died, among them two children, when a barrel bomb exploded.
 
And in Idlib province, eight members of one family were killed in a barrel bomb attack in the town of Kafr Sijna.
 
The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said the tolls in the incidents were expected to rise because of the number of people seriously wounded.
 
Regime barrel bombs -- crude weapons made of containers packed with explosives -- have often hit schools, hospitals and markets in Syria.
 
Rights groups criticise them as indiscriminate, saying they kill a disproportionate number of civilians.
         
Meanwhile, the extremist ISIL group pressed its assault on the northeast Syrian city of Hasakeh, detonating at least five car bombs as it advanced towards the city.
 
The Observatory said ISIL was "at the gates of Hasakeh" after a day of fierce clashes, with many dead on both sides.
 
"(The clashes) ended with ISIL seizing all of the military checkpoints south of the city. The toll is 27 forces from the army and its...