More than 30 people – including one of the volunteers and three children – were killed with more suspected to be still buried in the rubble. I gave you examples of what was going on after 12th of September when the document was enforced – 350 attacks by the opposition, close to Nusra, against government troops and against living quarters. If the government were able to regain control of the rebel-held eastern sector, it would mark the war’s most serious setback for the opposition. An army statement confirming the advance said “large numbers of terrorists” had been killed.
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“The Syrians are dropping barrel bombs and the Russian planes are launching strikes”, he said.
A senior official in an Aleppo-based rebel faction, the Levant Front, told Reuters the weapons appeared created to bring down entire buildings.
Heavy bombardment on Friday killed at least 47 people, among them seven children, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
“The regime and the Russians are conducting heavy raids as a prelude for their ground attack”, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the monitoring group, told DPA news agency.
Several residents said explosions had struck with far greater force than anything that had hit the city in the past, making bigger craters and bringing entire buildings down.
Hanaa Singer, UNICEF representative in Syria, said intense attacks damaged the Bab al-Nairab station that supplies some 250,000 people in rebel-held eastern parts of the contested city with water.
He added that this could be “catastrophic” for residents who have to resort to contaminated water and will be at risk from water-borne diseases.
“Since midnight until now there are eight dead people and 10 injured as a result of the air strikes”, Aljood was quoted as saying by CNN.
“Nothing about what the regime said about corridors is real, nothing”.
One rescue worker described what happened as “annihilation”.
The new government push came as the United Nations said that almost 2 million people in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and onetime commercial center, are without running water following an escalation in fighting over the past few days.
“It is as if Russian Federation and the regime used the truce only to maintain their weapons and plan on next targets”, Salmo said from Aleppo. “Our centers were the direct target [of the strikes]”.
Damascus and allies including Shi’ite militia from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon have encircled rebel-held areas of Aleppo gradually this year, achieving their long-held objective of fully besieging the area this summer with Russian air support.
The Syrian military, which is backed by the Russian air force, said it was starting a new operation against the rebel-held east. The Syrian government had promised, at the onset of the latest offensive, to allow residents of the east to escape to the Assad’s forces-held western districts.
WATCH: How critical is the city of Aleppo in Syria’s war? .
The bombing Thursday night and Friday morning shook the ground and made streets impassible, according to antigovernment activists in Aleppo.
“Military operations include everything, and of course the most important part is the ground operation”, the source said.
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An AFP correspondent in eastern Aleppo saw massive destruction in several neighborhoods, including Al-Kalasseh and Bustan al-Qasr, where some streets were nearly erased by the bombardment.
