13 killed in Syria mortar attack

Several mortar shells slammed into a government-controlled district in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo Thursday, killing 13 civilians and injuring 18 others, media reported.

Women and children were among those wounded by four mortar rounds which exploded at the al-Shuhada lane and the surroundings of a local marketplace in the New Aleppo district in northwestern Aleppo, Xinhua reported citing state news agency SANA.

The injured were rushed to the University Hospital and other city hospitals, said SANA, adding that terrorist pockets, including those of the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, spread in the surroundings of the New Aleppo district, where the incident took place.

SANA said the terrorist groups always target civilians and "safe neighbourhoods" with mortar shells and sniper fire.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog group, said the Syrian air force carried out air raids against rebel-held areas between the towns of Andan and Hraitan in the northern countryside of Aleppo, without information on losses or causalities.