UNITED NATIONS / BEIRUT: The U.N. Security Council expressed “outrage” Friday over a recent wave of barrel-bomb attacks in Syria’s Aleppo province that have left scores dead.

Syria’s ally Russia joined in a statement from the 15-member council condemning “all violence against civilians, and civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities.”

The statement was issued following a behind-closed-doors report Thursday by senior U.N. aid official John Ging, who said the attacks on Aleppo were continuing.

Ging estimated that some 3,600 people have been killed by barrel bombs in Aleppo alone since the beginning of the war, now in its fifth year, according to diplomats who attended the briefing.

The official reported that seven children were among 14 people who were killed in an attack on the day that he gave his report to the Security Council.

Council members “expressed outrage at all attacks against civilians, as well as indiscriminate attacks, including those involving shelling and aerial bombardment such as the use of barrel bombs, which have reportedly been extensively used in recent days,” the statement said.

The United States, Britain and France have accused President Bashar Assad’s forces of using barrel bombs – crude weapons made of containers packed with explosives that are dropped from helicopters.

The three countries note that only the Syrian regime has helicopters.

Assad has repeatedly denied using barrel bombs and has suggested that no such weaponry exists.

Anti-regime activists and Civil Defense personnel have circulated horrific images in recent days of civilians, among them children and infants, buried under the rubble of buildings in the wake of the barrel bomb attacks. One photo showed a young boy, Youssef Hayek, who was killed in the Aleppo town of Hayan when a barrel bomb landed on him and failed to explode.

The council also condemned “increased terrorist attacks” by ISIS and the Al-Qaeda-allied Nusra Front and their affiliates and called on them to put an end to the violence.

Friday’s weekly demonstrations, called for by anti-regime activists, condemned ISIS for its recent offensive against rebel groups in rural Aleppo province.

In the east, ISIS jihadis pressed their campaign to capture the city of Hassakeh in fierce battles with government forces backed by airstrikes.

“Fierce clashes continued Friday between regime forces and ISIS south of Hassakeh city. The regime is violently and intensely bombarding jihadi positions from the air,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based activist group said the regime was using barrel bombs against jihadis edging toward the city, which is divided between Kurdish and government control.

Since its offensive began Saturday, ISIS has advanced to the southern outskirts of Hassakeh with the aid of suicide attacks and heavy mortar fire.

Citing a military source, state news agency SANA said the army had used “aerial weapons ... to destroy equipment belonging to the [ISIS] terrorists.”

The assault has killed at least 71 loyalists and 59 extremists, including 11 who targeted regime positions with car bombs, ISIS’ signature weapon, the Observatory said.

The jihadis seized a number of key posts, including a prison and power plant. Hassakeh has since been left without power, local activist Arin Shekhmos told AFP.

Kurdish militia, locked in battles with ISIS in other parts of Hassakeh province, have yet to take part in the clashes south of the city.

“For the moment, the Kurds are not taking part in the fight as the battles have not reached their area,” Abdel-Rahman said.

A Turkish official said around 4,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey this week, fleeing fresh clashes pitting Kurdish fighters against ISIS.

Kurdish forces and their allies from several Free Syrian Army militias launched an offensive last week against the jihadis in the province of Raqqa, which lies between Aleppo and Hassakeh.

“We have taken in nearly 4,000 people, including women and children, who fled fighting in their areas,” the official told AFP.

The anti-ISIS forces aim to wrest control of the key ISIS-held Tal Abyad border crossing in order to free up passage from Ain al-Arab, also on the Turkish frontier, to Qamishli, near Iraq.

Some 15,000 people – mostly Turkish-speaking members of the Turkmen community – are expected to flee Raqqa province for Turkey, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.