Missile kills 26 near Aleppo

A missile strike near Syria's biggest city Aleppo killed 26 people, activists said Monday. The missile attack on Kfar Hamra came as Assad's forces mounted an assault on the rebel-held countryside surrounding Aleppo in the north. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the surface-to-surface missile struck around midnight, killing 26 people, including six women and eight children. "Regime forces... are trying to take the village, and then to break the rebel siege of Nubl and Zahra," two villages north of Aleppo, it added. The strike comes a few days into an army offensive aimed at advancing on Aazaz, a rebel stronghold north of Aleppo, the most populated city and commercial hub before the war. An estimated 94,000 people have been killed in Syria since a peaceful protest movement that began in March 2011 quickly became an armed revolt when the regime cracked down.