THE al-Qaida-linked insurgents occupying east Aleppo shelled a school and homes in a government-controlled district of the city yesterday, killing six children.

The extremists used rocket artillery to bombard the al-Wataniyeh school in the al-Shahbaa area of west Aleppo, killing three pupils and wounding 14 others.

One shell aslo hit a house in the al-Hamadaniye district, killing three brothers and injuring another.

The latest attacks came despite a nine-day moratorium on bombing within 10 kilometres of the city by the Syrian and Russian air forces.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said: “Terrorists continue indiscriminately shelling residential areas of the city using makeshift rocket launchers, preventing evacuation of civilians through the current humanitarian corridors.”

On Wednesday, Syrian UN ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari condemned the militants’ international backers, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Nato-member Turkey.

“Those countries continue to name the terrorists, who are using civilians as human shields, as moderate armed opposition,” he said.

Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the UN had failed to press those countries on the evacuation of the sick and wounded from east Aleppo, adding that insurgents were still receiving US-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

On Wednesday night, the Russian air force flew two helicopter gunships into Aleppo’s airport, just east of the front lines.

The helicopters will reportedly help defend the city from a looming offensive by the al-Qaida-affiliated Levant Conquest Front (LCF).

In central Hama province, the army recaptured the key town of Souran from LCF offshoot Jund al-Aqsa.