Warplanes mounted a new wave of heavy air strikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Saturday, rebel sources, a worker and a war monitor reported, pressing a major offensive by the Russian-backed Syrian military to take back the whole city.
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Western countries and worldwide aid organizations say they fear for the lives of more than 250,000 people civilians believed to be trapped in the rebel-held zone of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city, divided into opposition and government sectors for years. The Local Coordination Committees, another monitoring group, said 49 were killed on Saturday alone.
Medics said they were carrying out many amputations to try to save the wounded, while supplies of blood and IV drips were running out.
The Syrian army says it is determined to retake rebel-held areas in Aleppo, after a ceasefire collapsed on Monday. Activists reported dozens of airstrikes on Friday alone.
“Since the beginning of the crisis, Aleppo has not been subjected to such a vicious campaign”, said Mohammed Abu Jaafar, a forensics expert based in the city. “Aleppo is being wiped out”.
“We have four centres in eastern Aleppo”. Wounded people have flooded into clinics, where many are being treated on the floor because of a lack of stretchers. “No aid, including urgent medical supplies, is allowed to enter”.
Syrian state TV said insurgents shelled the government-held neighborhood of Salhiyeh, killing five people. An army statement confirming the advance said “large numbers of terrorists” had been killed, using the regime’s terminology for any anti-Assad groups.
A Syrian military source told Reuters the operation announced late on Thursday was going to plan, as the army prepares for a ground offensive in a bid to recapture the rebel-held areas of the city.
The fall of Handarat to Syrian troops allied with pro-government Palestinian fighters pushed insurgents further away from the government-controlled Castello Road, a main artery leading to rebel-held parts of the city.
“Breaking the siege through the Castello Road has become very hard”, Yassin Abu Raed, an opposition activist based in Aleppo province, told The Associated Press.
In between the raids, civil defence volunteers known as White Helmets frantically searched for those trapped in the rubble of demolished buildings, often with bare hands.
The camp, which is nearly empty and largely destroyed, has witnessed intense fighting and bombardment in recent years.
“The US needs to think about two issues if it wants to manage the war – punishing the Assad regime for cessation-of-hostilities violations while not striking Russians. He died on the spot”, Nizar said, the body of his son on the ground wrapped in a blanket.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was left pleading this week with Russian Federation to halt air strikes, but was ignored.
US Secretary of State John Kerry was left pleading this week with Russian Federation to halt air strikes, but was ignored.
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The capture of the Handarat camp a few kilometres marked the first major ground advance by the government in an offensive that rebels say has unleashed unprecedented firepower against their half of the city.
