Rebel-held districts in east Aleppo came under intense air and artillery fire for a fifth night as the army prepared a ground offensive to recapture the entire divided city.
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Syria’s military announced the “start” of military operations in eastern Aleppo, warning residents to keep away from specific sites and centers of “armed terrorist groups”, according to state-run news agency SANA.
The United States on Sunday called Russia’s action in Syria “barbarism”, not counter-terrorism, while Moscow’s U.N. envoy said ending the war “is nearly an impossible task now” as Syrian regime forces, backed by Moscow, bombed the city of Aleppo.
Western countries and global aid organisations said they feared for the lives of more than 250,000 civilians believed to be trapped in the rebel-held zone of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city, which has been divided into opposition and Government sectors for years.
“We are deeply anxious by the high numbers of wounded reported by the hospitals we support, and also know that in many areas the wounded and sick have nowhere to go at all – they are simply left to die”.
He warned that “the apparent systematic use of these types of indiscriminate weapons in densely populated areas may amount to war crimes”, a statement from his spokesman said. The United Nations Children’s Fund said that the loss of mains supply posed serious health risks in rebel-held areas as the only alternative source of drinking water was from highly contaminated wells.
US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Syria and Russian Federation to end aerial bombardment of eastern Aleppo, stating there is “no chance” of peace without an end to military operations and coordination between the parties.
Riad Hijab, head of the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee, told journalists in NY that “what’s happening in Aleppo is a manifestation of the ineffectiveness of any cooperation with murders and terrorists”.
“We ask the global community (to take) action to protect Syrian people and deliver aid”, he said. More than 45 people were killed in the city and at least seven others in the countryside, according to conflict monitors and rescue squads.
“A so-called military solution is impossible, including in Aleppo”, he stressed.
Syrian state TV said insurgents shelled the government-held neighborhood of Salhiyeh, killing five people.
“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. Handarat had been in rebel hands for years.
The Syrian army says it is targeting rebel positions, and denies hitting civilians.
The army which is being helped by Iranian-backed militias, Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah militant group and a Palestinian militia, acknowledged rebels had retaken Handarat, whose capture on Saturday briefly marked the first major ground advance by the army in a new offensive to recapture rebel held Aleppo. It said “the criminal campaign aims to settle global accounts at the expense of Syrians’ blood”.
The latest offensive was launched after a ceasefire collapsed on Monday.
Moscow is a key ally of Assad’s government, while Washington supports the opposition.
The assault on Aleppo, where more than 250,000 civilians are trapped, could be the biggest battle yet in a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven 11 million from their homes.
United Nations officials say almost two million civilians were left without water in the devastated northern city after regime bombardment damaged a pumping station and rebels shut down another in retaliation.
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Ms Singer said the Suleiman al-Halabi pumping station, also located in the rebel-held east, was then switched off in retaliation – cutting water to 1.5 million people in government-held western parts of the city.
