Syria's regime pounded rebel-held parts of the southern city of Daraa with rockets and barrel bombs overnight causing dozens of families to flee, a monitor and an AFP reporter said Monday.

A war monitor reported Syrian military helicopters dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas of the southwest on Friday for the first time in a year.

Syrian air strikes and shelling killed 25 civilians in eastern districts of Aleppo on Thursday, a monitor said, on the third day of a wide-ranging regime assault on rebel-held areas.

At least 15 civilians were killed in a barrel bomb attack on a rebel-held district of Syria's Aleppo city on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.