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Syrian government air strikes put 4 hospitals out of action – monitor

The fall of the city to forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would represent a significant blow to the opposition movement.

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O’Brien said his call for 48-hour pauses must be backed by the Security Council, the U.N.’s most powerful body.

Referencing the conditions in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, French ambassador François Delattre said that “The security council simply can not accept such war crimes – yes, war crimes – to repeat again”.

“Enough is enough now”, Matthew Rycroft, the United Kingdom ambassador to the UN, said.

Air strikes by Syrian government forces have hit four makeshift hospitals and a blood bank in the city of Aleppo, killing a two-day-old baby.

The bombardment came as UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura was expected to meet top U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva on Tuesday with the aim of reviving peace talks to end the five-year conflict.

The World Health Organisation said Syria was the most risky place for health care workers to operate previous year.

U.N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura is scheduled to meet senior USA and Russian officials on Tuesday in Geneva. The group says that between 2011 and May this year, there were 373 attacks on 265 medical facilities.

US Secretary of State John Kerry this month said that Washington and Damascus ally Moscow had reached a common understanding on the steps needed to get Syria’s peace process back on track.

The Britain-based group said loyalist troops had full control of the Leramun district after heavy clashes, and reported fighting over the neighbouring district of Bani Zeid, which is also held by rebels.

“Nineteen civilians were killed and 55 others injured, including children and women”, he said.

It reported at least five SDF fighters and 18 ISIS militants killed, as well as 8 civilians.

“Rescuers are struggling to extract them from under the debris”, he said.

“For over two weeks, the Assad regime, Russian Federation and Iran have mercilessly raided Aleppo city and forced its civilian population to flee”, he said.

One boy was pulled out alive but the rest of his family were killed and their bodies remained under a collapsed building, he added.

The city, once Syria’s most populous, is divided between government forces and anti-government militias.

Government forces effectively severed the opposition’s Castello Road supply route on July 7, when they advanced to within firing range.

France on Monday called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Aleppo after four hospitals were bombed in the besieged Syrian city and civilians were killed by barrel bomb attacks.

The statement, carried by state news agency SANA and quoting an anonymous foreign ministry official, also said Syria would be “ready to coordinate air operations against terrorism as part of the agreement between Russian Federation and the United States”.

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Rebel rockets hit a hospital on the side of the city controlled by the regime a few days later.

A damaged room in Atareb hospital