Air raids turn Aleppo into killing field
RELENTLESS BOMBINGS HAVE ALSO LEFT AT LEAST 2M WITHOUT WATER
With pools of blood and shredded bodies on the streets, the rebel-held east of Syrian city Aleppo has been reduced to an apocalyptic battlefront under relentless regime and Russian aerial bombardment.
Doctors at one of the last functioning hospitals said they were being forced to carry out swift amputations just to keep survivors alive.
“Many of the wounded are dying before our eyes — we’re helpless,” said Dr. Ahmad, circled by men and children stretched out the floor.
On one bed, a little boy glanced in silence at his blood-soaked hands.
It was a scene reminiscent of four-year-old Omran whose haunting picture sitting dazed and confused in the back of an Aleppo ambulance last month made front pages around the world.
Yesterday’s initial death toll stood at 32 but was expected to rise because people remained trapped under rubble, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.
The wounded small boy on the hospital bed lost a baby brother when an air strike devastated their apartment in the Bab Al Nayrab district.
“We were home when a missile crashed into our road,” said their father, Nizar, standing red-eyed and holding back tears outside what remained of their house.
“Half of the building just caved in and our baby was hit on the head. He died on the spot,” said the father, his youngest child lying on the ground wrapped in a blanket.
The bombings have also left at least two million persons without water, the UN said.
Unicef Deputy Director Justin Forsyth said: “Aleppo is slowly dying, and the world is watching, it is just the latest act of inhumanity.”
He said the lack of running water could be “catastrophic” as residents now use contaminated water and are at risk from waterborne diseases.
Residents in Syria’s battleground city of Aleppo cowered indoors yesterday as fierce air strikes toppled buildings and killed at least 25 civilians, after diplomatic efforts to revive a ceasefire failed.
Nearly two million civilians were without water in the devastated northern city after regime bombardment damaged a pumping station and rebels shut down another in retaliation, the United Nations said.
Rebel-held districts in east Aleppo came under intense air and artillery fire for a fifth night as the army prepared a ground offensive to recapture the whole of the divided city.
Yesterday’s death toll of 25 was expected to rise because people remained trapped under rubble, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.
Seven people were killed in a strike as they queued to buy yoghurt at a market in the Bustan Al Qasr neighbourhood, which sits along the front line that divides the government-held west from the rebel-held east of the city.
The attack left a pool of blood and body parts strewn at the site, an AFP correspondent reported.
On Friday, at least 47 people were killed in heavy bombing, among them seven children, according to the Observatory.
There was massive destruction in several neighbourhoods, including Al Kalasseh and Bustan Al Qasr, where some streets were almost erased by the bombardment.
Unexploded rockets were still buried in the roads in some areas, and elsewhere enormous craters had been left by the bombing.
Residents and activists described the use of a missile that produced earthquake-like tremors upon impact and razed buildings right down to basement level where many residents desperately seek protection during bombing.
Civil defence overwhelmed
The Civil Defence organisation known as the White Helmets was left overwhelmed by the scale of the destruction, particularly after several of its bases were damaged in bombing on Friday.
The group says it has just two fire engines left for all of east Aleppo which, like its ambulances, are struggling to move around the city.
With no electricity or fuel for generators, the streets of Aleppo are pitch black and difficult to navigate at night, and the fuel shortage has also made it tough to fill up vehicles.
In many places, rubble strewn across streets has rendered them impassable and has effectively sealed off neighbourhoods to traffic.
Yesterday morning, the streets were nearly empty, with just a few residents out looking for bread.
The UN children’s agency, Unicef, said the loss of mains supply posed serious health risks in rebel-held areas as the only alternative source of drinking water was from highly contaminated wells.
“It is critical for children’s survival that all parties to the conflict stop attacks on water infrastructure, provide access to assess and repair damage to Bab Al Nayrab station, and switch the water back on at the Sulaiman Al Halabi station,” it said.
The denial of access to food, water and medicines has been used repeatedly as a weapon by all sides in the five-year war, which has cost more than 300,000 lives and displaced over half the population.
The approximately 250,000 people in east Aleppo have been under near-continuous siege since government troops encircled the area in mid-July.
The Observatory said that regime forces had captured Handarat Camp, located just north of Aleppo, after heavy clashes and multiple Russian air strikes.
They had been fighting to take the camp for months because it is on high ground that overlooks the rebel-held east of the city.
A truce deal negotiated between Moscow and Washington brought a few days of respite from the violence in Aleppo earlier this month, though no humanitarian aid.
But the deal has fallen apart, and on Thursday the Syrian army announced an operation to retake all of Aleppo, urging civilians in the east to distance themselves from “terrorists”.
Unicef said the loss of mains supply posed serious health risks in rebelheld areas as the only alternative source of drinking water was highly contaminated wells.