‘Why do they bomb us?’ 13yo Aleppo girl, brother killed in latest rebel shelling (GRAPHIC)

A series of deadly mortar attacks rocked the government-controlled areas of Aleppo on Sunday, killing at least three people and injuring 23 others. RT spoke with survivors as rescuers dug through rubble to recover the body of a 13-year-old girl.

It took a total of six hours to recover the body of the young girl, named Sarah, who died inside her apartment – despite staying home from school in an effort to remain safe.

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RT films aftermath of deadly shelling in residential areas of Aleppo (GRAPHIC)

“Her father told her and her brother not to go to school because there was heavy shelling going on. So they stayed home, and then the rocket hit [the apartment],” Sarah's neighbor and friend, Ahmad, told RT’s Murad Gazdiev.

Sarah's 20-year-old brother died in the same room.

Overcome with grief, Sarah's father had to be restrained following the realization that both his children had been killed.

Another father, Adnan al-Faraj, told RT that he was previously injured during a shelling attack, and now his three children had suffered the same fate.

“All of them are currently in hospital,” he said.

Faraj went on to question why the rebels choose to target innocent civilians when they are “face-to-face with the Syrian army.”

“Why do they bomb us instead?” he asked.

Speaking to RT, UNICEF's regional chief of communication for the Middle East and North Africa, Juliette Touma, said the agency is especially concerned that “all parties to the conflict are committing violations against children – grave, grave violations that include killing, maiming, attacks on schools, attacks on hospitals, lack of humanitarian access.”

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US & UK fire ‘war crimes’ accusations at Moscow as rebels shell Aleppo civilians

Touma went on to call for violations against children in Syria to come to an end.

The Sunday shelling hit residential areas in western Aleppo. The city is currently divided into the eastern part held by militants – including Al-Nusra Front terrorists – while the rest of the city is under the control of government forces.

Western media outlets, which regularly decry the plight of civilians in Syria, are overwhelmingly ignoring the deaths caused by rebels in government-held areas of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, the US brushes aside criticism of its failure to separate the so-called “moderate” rebels from terrorists on the ground.

US Secretary of State John Kerry once again criticized Russia's involvement in Syria on Sunday, claiming the horror "could stop tomorrow morning" if Moscow and Damascus would act decently. He accused the two parties of committing daily "crimes against humanity." 

However, as Virginia Senator Richard Black told RT, the crisis would just as likely be resolved if the US and its allies ordered their terrorist proxies in Aleppo to allow civilians to leave, instead of using them as hostages to escalate anti-Russia rhetoric in a bid to prevent the fall of the rebel stronghold.