Beirut, Nov 18 (IANS/EFE): At least 23 people were killed Monday and Tuesday by barrel bombs launched by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The observatory said that 13 of the victims, including two children, died Tuesday morning when government helicopters dropped barrel bombs near the villages of Hreitan and Kafr Hamra. Another 20 people were injured in the strike, SOHR noted.

In addition, 10 more people were killed and dozens more were injured late Monday in a similar attack near a bakery and a restaurant in al-Bab, a town under the control of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical group in the northern province of Aleppo.

In the attack, Syrian military helicopters dropped barrel bombs late Monday near a bakery and a restaurant.

Barrel bombs are gasoline drums filled with explosives and shrapnel and their use by the Syrian regime has been strongly condemned by international organisations and foreign governments.

More than 200,000 people have been killed since the multi-sided civil war broke out in Syria in March 2011, according to the UN.