A total of six hospitals were bombed by Syrian regime warplanes in Aleppo the week between July 23 and July 31, marking the worst week for attacks on medical facilities the city has seen since the war began in 2011, US-based rights group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said on Wednesday. He said the Russian military had informed the US about the incident.
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“The opposition offensive has not achieved the results that were expected at this stage”.
In a statement, the United Nations children’s fund UNICEF said it is extremely concerned for the safety and wellbeing of children caught up in the violence in Aleppo, reporting that children make up a third of the 300,000 residents trapped in rebel-held besieged neighbourhoods.
After months of fighting between government forces and rebels in Aleppo, Syria, the situation has escalated in recent weeks.
The observatory said that Russian aircraft were behind the strikes at dawn.
They have managed to keep control of at least four hilltops and one small village, he added.
The Syrian regime, headed by autocrat leader Bashar al Assad, has been making gains across Syria since Russian Federation launched air strikes targeting opposition forces previous year.
Qassem said the United States, one of the power brokers in finding a solution to the crisis, was distracted by its November presidential elections and not ready to commit to any action until a new president takes over next year.
“The regime is launching counter-attacks to absorb the fierce rebel offensive”, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
The Unicef statement came as Russian Federation said it has informed the United States that insurgents attacked a government-held neighbourhood of Aleppo using toxic gas, killing at least seven people.
More than 40 civilians have been killed by shelling on government-held neighbourhoods since Sunday.
He said recapturing Aleppo, Syria’s second major city where a decisive battle is unfolding, remained an objective but was not an immediate goal.
It was Syria’s commercial hub until 2012, when clashes left it roughly divided between the government-held west and rebels in the east.
Eastern districts came under government siege on July 17, sparking concerns for the estimated 250,000 people still living there. We consider the proposal deeply flawed on humanitarian grounds and consider it [a] warning for the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) to urgently step up efforts to end the use of brutal siege tactics and illegal attacks on civilians.
On Tuesday, Syria’s government claimed “terrorist groups” carried out a gas attack in Aleppo’s old town, killing five people, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.
Residents said chlorine gas had been used in the attack, but the monitor could not confirm this.
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A Syrian group said on Thursday it had the bodies of five people shot down in a Russian helicopter and demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for the corpses.
