Syrian government forces launch offensive against Aleppo’s rebel-held districts with 65 dead in four days
After a three-week lull, Russian and Syrian forces renew attacks against eastern Aleppo forcing residents to spend nights in shelters and cellars. Rebels respond by firing rockets and bombing government-controlled western districts. UN estimates more than 700 killed by the end of October.
Aleppo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – After more than three weeks of relative calm, Syrian aircraft and artillery pounded rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo early Friday as Damascus and its ally Moscow intensified their renewed offensive to bring the whole city, divided since 2012, under government control.
Residents in eastern Aleppo spent most of the night in basements and bomb shelters as barrel bombs and other ordnance rained down until midnight only to resume in the early hours, local sources said.
The rebels riposted by firing more than a dozen rockets into government-held western areas of the city, home to 1,2 million live. About 250,000 people are left in the rebel-held eastern part of the city.
Syrian air strikes and shelling killed at least 25 civilians in rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo on Thursday, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Eight besieged eastern districts were reportedly bombarded, as government forces stepped up their offensive to seize the whole city, once northern Syria’s economic and industrial hub.
Meanwhile, another 20 people were killed in car-bomb attack in the rebel-held town of Azaz, north of Aleppo. Both rebel fighters and civilians were among the dead, a senior official in the rebel Nour al-Din al-Zinki Movement said.
A children's hospital and a hospital specialising in surgery in eastern Shaar district also came under attack on Wednesday, medics and activists said. Staff at the children's hospital had to move children, including premature babies, from cots and incubators to the basement of the building.
In four days of fighting, at least 65 civilians have been killed, including many children. As of the end of October, air strikes and shelling had killed more than 700 civilians in the east, while rocket fire left scores of dead in the west, this according to the UN.
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