Artillery and missile shelling on Al-Bab city leaves dozens of civilian casualties

Artillery and missile shelling targeted this morning a local market in Al-Bab city in eastern countryside of Aleppo, northern Syria. The strike killed at least fourteen people and wounded dozens, most are seriously injured, which will likely result in death toll rise. The shelling, which targeted ‘Thursday Market’ and residential neighborhoods in the city, coincided with a massive turnout at the city’s market. The strike was launched before a protest that was supported to take place after Friday prayer to denounce the call for reconciliation between the Syrian regime and the opposition. The shelling was accompanied with an intense flight of a reconnaissance plane, since early hours of the morning, over Al-Bab city. Field observatories identified the source of the missile shelling as the village of Dar Shaala, which is under the control of al-Assad forces and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Activists reported that hospitals in Al-Bab launched distress calls to donate blood, as wounded civilians arrived for treatment. Escalation increased in the past few days on the front line in northern and northeastern countryside of Aleppo, amid artillery and aerial shelling exchanged between Turkish forces on one hand and al-Assad forces and SDF on the other. A Turkish drone attack, launched on August 16 killed and wounded seventeen members of al-Assad forces near Ayn al-Arab city (Kobani).