Dozens of people were killed in the rebel-controlled Syrian city of Aleppo on Thursday when forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad dropped barrel bombs on a busy marketplace.  The death toll has been reported as 33 by official sources, at least 40 by human rights groups that back the rebels.

Bodies were strewn with the vegetables, bricks, and debris where people had been trying to get food for dinner.  The barrel bombs are a decided low tech weapon made of explosives crammed into oil drums which can be dropped from helicopters or planes – no expensive targeting systems required.  They’ve proved to be a devastating weapon against al-Assad’s own people in the Syrian civil war.

This attack comes a day after Syrian missiles plunged into an elementary school, which was exhibiting the children’s artwork.  18 people were killed in that earlier attack, mostly children.  More than 150,000 people have been killed in more than three years of conflict that grew out of street protests against Assad’s rule.