Syria barrel bomb attack: At least 16 killed at wake in Aleppo

A helicopter dropped two barrel bombs on a funeral wake for children in the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing at least 16 people, Syrian monitoring groups said.

The wake was being held Saturday in the rebel-controlled neighborhood of Bab al-Nayrab, the same area where 15 people were killed in a barrel bombing Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Another group, the Aleppo Media Center, reported a higher death toll of 24 people killed and 30 others injured in the attack.

Barrel bombs -- oil drums filled with explosives and shrapnel and dropped by aircraft -- killed more than 3,000 civilians in Aleppo 2014, according to a report last year by Amnesty International. 

The human rights organization said barrel bombs are a common tactic of the Syrian government, which has been fighting rebels in a civil war since 2011.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad categorically denied any use of barrel bombs by his forces in an interview with the BBC in 2014.