United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has said he was “appalled by the chilling military escalation” in Syria’s battleground city of Aleppo where residents cowered indoors as air strikes toppled buildings and killed at least 45 civilians.
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The UN Security Council will meet to urgently address the crisis over fighting in Aleppo, after a request from US, Britain and France, diplomats say.
Meanwhile, Syrian forces seized ground north of Aleppo on Saturday, capturing the Palestinian refugee camp of Handarat, which had been in rebel hands for years.
But Lavrov said that it would be “senseless” to impose a new truce because the United States had failed to separate moderate rebel groups from jihadists.
“We do not have enough doctors to cope with such a high number of casualties”, said Ibrahim al-Hajj, a volunteer with the White Helmets, a rescue group that operates in rebel-held districts.
Hanaa Singer, the UNICEF representative in Syria, said: “Nearly 2 million people in Aleppo are once again with no running water through the public network”. “The secretary-general considers this a dark day for the global commitment to protect civilians”.
Last Tuesday, Mr Ban launched a stinging attack on the Syrian government, saying it had killed the most civilians in the conflict. The US blames Russian Federation, but Moscow has denied its involvement.
Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem addresses the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of NY, U.S., September 24, 2016.
Syria refers to all rebel groups trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad as terrorists.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday reiterated a call to revive the ceasefire “on a collective basis”.
The latest air strikes on Aleppo come after 20 people were killed and the city’s main water pumping station was destroyed, according to the media center.
Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, has warned that fierce air strikes on Friday stopped repairs to a damaged water pumping station supplying rebel-held eastern districts of the city.
“In the eastern part of Aleppo, the population will have to resort to highly contaminated well water”, a statement released by the organization read. Washington said the attack was “unintentional”, a claim totally rejected by the Syrian government, with President Bashar al-Assad saying the USA -led coalition intentionally struck the Syrian army posts in Deir al-Zour.
The secretary-general urged the global community to unite and say it will not tolerate the indiscriminate use of power weapons against civilians.
The advance was the first sign that an intensive bombing campaign by Syrian and Russian jets that began Thursday night was working to bolster the position of the Syrian government’s forces.
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The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday’s death toll of 32 is expected to rise because people remain trapped under rubble. The two powers accuse each other of failing to rein in their respective allies on the ground.
