Rebel rockets kill five in Syria's Aleppo

Rebel rocket fire killed five civilians in Syria's Aleppo on Tuesday, a monitor said, in the deadliest bombardment on the northern city in months.

The rockets rained down on several districts in Syria's second city on Tuesday afternoon, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"Five civilians were killed and at least 10 others were wounded," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"It's the highest toll we have documented in several months," he said.

The Britain-based Observatory said the rockets came from the western outskirts of Aleppo, where rebel groups are still entrenched.

Syria's government recaptured all of Aleppo in December, after a ferocious month-long offensive that ended with the evacuation of thousands of rebels and civilians from the city's opposition-held east.

That withdrawal was the biggest blow yet to Syria's rebels, who had overrun half the city in mid-2012.

Since announcing victory in Aleppo, Syria's armed forces have gone on to score advances in the wider province, as well as near Damascus and in desert areas in the country's centre and east.

The conflict first erupted in March 2011 with protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, but it has since evolved into a complex war drawing in international powers.

More than 330,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced.

Source: AFP