At least 13 people were kiled and 17 wounded after a Syrian government helicopter dropped a barrel bomb on a rebel-held area in the city of Aleppo, residents and a monitoring group have claimed.

Residents found children "torn apart" following the barrel bomb attack, AFP news agency reported on Saturday. The attack took place in Maadi in northeastern Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In another part of the city, three children died and a dozen people were wounded after rebel rockets struck a regime-held district, the Observatory said.

The monitoring group said the Maadi deaths happened when the regime aircraft "dumped a barrel bomb of explosives on a building" early in the morning.

The death toll could rise because of the number of seriously injured people, it said.

The Observatory reported the death of only one child, but the local resident said at least four were killed.

An AFP journalist on the scene saw a building with its roof caved in and other major damage.

Last month the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the number of rebel sectors hit by barrel bombs had almost doubled in five months.

The regime has pressed on with its barrel bomb campaign despite a United Nations resolution on February 22 banning their indiscriminate use in populated areas.

HRW described barrel bombs as "cheaply made, locally produced, and typically constructed from large oil drums, gas cylinders, and water tanks, filled with high explosives and scrap metal to enhance fragmentation, and then dropped from helicopters".

PHOTO CAPTION

Syrian residents search the rubble for survivors following a reported air strike by government forces on June 18, 2014 in the northern city of Aleppo.

Aljazeera