ALEPPO, Syria

 At least 20 people were killed and around 40 were injured in regime barrel bomb attacks on Aleppo in northern Syria, Civil Defense officials said.

The death toll included a number of women and children.

Baibars Mashal, a Civil Defense official in Aleppo, told Anadolu Agency that regime helicopters targeted four neighborhoods in the city using eight barrel bombs.

Barrel bombs are improvised explosives typically consisting of a barrel filled with high explosives, shrapnel, oil or chemicals, which is then dropped from an aircraft.

More than 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and opposition forces began, according to the UN.