At least 20 civilians died in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo and dozens were injured, some seriously when government helicopters dropped a barrel bomb a watchdog reported on Tuesday.
The UK-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory said the so-called barrel bomb was dropped near a garage in Aleppo's rebel-held Jesr al-Haj district.
Victims included children and the death-toll was expected to rise, the monitor said, adding that most of bodies of those killed "were charred".
Government forces dropped a second barrel bomb on the al-Shaqif area, but no casualties were reported, the watchdog said.
The government has waged an unrelenting aerial campaign against the opposition-held eastern part of the city, making particular use of the barrel bombs, which are packed with explosives and metal fragments.
The crudely made barrel bombs inflict horrific injuries and have been widely criticised by rights groups as indiscriminate weapons.
Amnesty International earlier this month deplored the barrel bombs, which it said had killed over 11,000 people in Syria since 2012 and 3,000 in the province of Aleppo last year alone.
Once Syria's business capital, fighting between government and rebel forces began in Aleppo in mid-2012.
