Carnage as airstrikes in Syria’s besieged Aleppo kill dozens
Carnage as airstrikes in Syria’s besieged Aleppo kill dozens
Airstrikes pounded rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Thursday, killing more than 20 people and hitting a water pumping station on the third day of an air campaign on the besieged territory
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Russian and regime forces are aiming to retake East Aleppo from rebels [Anadolu]
Airstrikes pounded rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Thursday, killing more than 20 people and hitting a water pumping station on the third day of a renewed air campaign on the besieged territory, Syrian activists and rescue workers said.
The activist-run Public Services Authority said the Bab al-Nairab water plant was struck with a barrel bomb. Spokesman Ahmad al-Shami said the plant was damaged but is still operating.
“This regime uses any means to add pressure to civilians. It has bombed bakeries and hospitals and has not made an exception for water and electricity,” he told The Associated Press.
Doctors Without Borders said the children’s hospital and a specialised surgical hospital were hit by Wednesday’s strikes.
“Hospital staff managed to move children including prematurely born babies from cots and incubators to the basement of the building in order to shelter them from the bombing,” said the aid group, which sponsors both hospitals.
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Doctors Without Borders said a children’s hospital and a specialised surgical hospital were hit by Wednesday’s strikes. |  |
The Syrian Civil Defence said 28 people were killed in and around Aleppo on Thursday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of local activists, put the death toll at 25.
At least 70 people were killed in northern Syria on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Russia says it is not bombing Aleppo as part of the offensive announced this week, but is instead targeting insurgents in Idlib and the central Homs province.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the strikes targeting al-Qaida took place in Idlib on Tuesday, and were launched from Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which recently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea.
He said three leading members of the al-Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Sham Front — Muhammad Helala, Abu Jaber Harmuja and Abul Baha al-Asfari — were among those killed. He said al-Asfari had overseen the group’s attempts to break the siege of Aleppo.
Al-Asfari had led a moderate rebel group in 2013, and it was not clear if or when he joined the al-Qaeda-linked group.
An opposition media group known as All4Syria reported that the two other named militants were killed Tuesday in an airstrike in the village of Kfar Jalis, in the Idlib countryside, that also killed six civilians. The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said the airstrike on the jihadi stronghold killed six leading militants, without identifying them.
The same village was struck Thursday, the Observatory said, killing six civilians from the same family.
Months of negotiations between the US and Russia failed to cement a long-term cease-fire in Aleppo, which has become the focus of the war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels fighting to topple him.
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