BEIRUT: Thirteen civilians, among them seven children, were killed in aerial attacks by Syria's government Wednesday on the northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

"A woman and her three children, as well as another child, were killed when helicopters dropped a barrel bomb on the village of Taduf," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Taduf, which lies in the northeast of Syria's Aleppo province, is controlled by Daesh.

In the province's west, "eight civilians, including three children, were killed when regime warplanes struck the village of Daret Izza," held by Daesh fighters and other rebels.

Meanwhile, a monitoring group said Wednesday that more than 50 child soldiers recruited by Daesh in Syria have been killed since the beginning of this year,

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented the deaths of 52 child soldiers, all under the age of 16.

As many as 31 were killed in July alone, in explosions, clashes, and air strikes by Syria’s regime and the US-led coalition.

The child soldiers are used to man checkpoints or gather intelligence from areas outside Daesh control, but the group has been increasingly using them to execute prisoners or conduct suicide attacks.

So far this year, Daesh has used 18 children as suicide bombers, most recently in its fight against Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria.

“This shows that Daesh is exploiting the suffering of the Syrian people,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

“When a child reaches the point of becoming a suicide bomber, this means that he’s been completely brainwashed,” Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The Observatory said it had received information on dozens more children killed, but that it could not confirm their deaths.

Since the beginning of 2015, Daesh has recruited more than 1,100 children.

Also on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch criticized the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which is fighting Daesh in Syria, of failing to meet a commitment to stop using children in combat.