DAMASCUS: At least 29 people were killed in Syria's northern province of Aleppo Saturday as rebels also captured a key oilfield in the east of the country, a monitoring group said.
State television, meanwhile, reported that the national reconciliation minister avoided an assassination attempt, after gunmen opened fire on his car while he was not inside.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at least 29 deaths in several regime air strikes in northern Aleppo.
The group, which relies on activists, lawyers and doctors on the ground in Syria for its information, said at least 14 people were killed in Aleppo city's eastern Tariq al-Bab district.
Another 15 people, including a woman and a child, were killed in four air strikes on the nearby town of Al-Bab and the Tadef area, the Britain-based Observatory said.
Video posted online by Syrian activists showed chaos at the scene of the Tariq al-Bab raids, with dozens of people picking through the rubble of a partly collapsed building and ambulance sirens sounding.
Residents could be seen throwing buckets of water on a charred car still in flames.
Elsewhere, the Observatory said rebel groups including the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front had seized control of the key Omar oilfield in Deir Ezzor province in the east.
"Fighters from Al-Nusra and other groups have taken the Omar oilfield in Deir Ezzor province after clashes overnight," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
He said government troops had withdrawn from the oilfield, one of Syria's largest.
The Observatory said the regime loss meant it no longer controls any of Syria's eastern oilfields.
The army lost the Omar facility for the first time in November 2012, but later recaptured it.
Video posted online by opposition activists showed fighters milling around an entrance to the oilfield, as others drove a tank said to have been captured from regime forces.
Speaking to the camera, one activist said fighters had seized seven tanks.
The opposition took its first oilfield last year. Since then, groups operating in rebel-held territory have begun producing oil for sale on the black market.
International sanctions against Syria have sharply reduced its oil exports, and the raging conflict has made even production for domestic consumption increasingly difficult.
State television, meanwhile, reported that National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar escaped an attempt to kill him on Saturday.
"National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar escaped an assassination attempt on the Masyaf-Qadmus road, and his driver was killed," the channel said in a breaking news alert.
Haidar was not in the car at the time of the shooting, it added.
Masyaf is in central Hama province, while Qadmus is in the coastal province of Tartus.
Haidar, head of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, was appointed national reconciliation minister by President Bashar al-Assad in June 2012.
He belongs to that part of the opposition which is tolerated by the regime and distances itself from the rebels fighting to overthrow Assad.
Born in the city of Hama in 1962, Haidar is an eye specialist.
One of his children was shot dead by unidentified men in Hama in May 2012, shortly before he was appointed minister.
More than 120,000 people have been killed since the conflict in Syria began in March 2011, with protests seeking the overthrow of the government. (AFP)
