TERROR FROM THE SKY

Unimaginable horrors are being inflicted on the 300 000 Iraqi civilians trapped in Aleppo

MOTHERS weep over the bodies of their de ad c h i ldren , maimed people are dragged from the wreckage of buildings, corpses pile up on pavements . . . More than five years on, the civil war in Syria continues and the world seems to have become immune to the horror.

While the international community turns a blind eye, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has joined forces with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin to unleash what the United Nations has branded as “the worst humanitarian crisis” of the war.

Their target? Aleppo, the country’s second largest city. In a bid to flush out rebels, whom Assad sees as a threat to his 16-year-rule, he and his Russian ally have subjected Aleppo to waves of bombings – and more than 300 000 innocent citizens trapped in the besieged city are bearing the brunt of the unprecedented onslaught.

Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial hub, now looks like something out of an apocalyptic movie. The bombs Assad is using against his own people were designed to release toxic gases and melt skin and bone, and are so powerful they cause almost as much devastation as nuclear warheads.

Even though the UN has warned that by using these hugely destructive weapons in civilian areas Assad and Putin are knowingly committing war crimes, the rulers are sticking to their guns.

Joshua Landis, director of the Centre for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma in the US, believes Assad would rather see Aleppo pounded into the dust than risk having it remain in the hands of the rebels. And it seems his ruthless ally is happy to help him do it.