Backed by ally Russia, Syria renews assault on rebels

aleppo — Syria’s government and its ally Russia launched on Tuesday a wide-ranging assault on rebel strongholds with renewed strikes on the besieged eastern neighbourhoods of battered second city Aleppo.

The operation was the first of its kind since Donald Trump won the US presidential election last week.

Moscow said it had begun a “major operation” which saw the first missions carried out by warplanes taking off from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier that arrived off Syria last week.

In Aleppo, Syrian government aircraft pounded the eastern neighbourhoods with air strikes and barrel bomb attacks, a monitor and AFP correspondent said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least five civilians were killed in the bombardment, the first of its kind since October 18.

An AFP correspondent in east Aleppo said strikes hit the Sakhur, Fardos and Masakan Hanano neighbourhoods while ambulances sped through the streets to evacuate the wounded.

Warplanes dropped flares to counter heat-seeking missiles, he said.

The bombardment ended a period of relative respite for more than 250,000 people living in besieged eastern Aleppo.

On October 18, Moscow said it was halting its air strikes ahead of a short-lived truce and Syrian strikes on the rebel east also subsided, with bombardment mostly confined to areas where clashes were taking place on the edges of the city.

The respite came after international criticism of a ferocious assault launched by Syrian and Russian forces on September 22 in a bid to recapture eastern Aleppo city.

No aid has entered eastern Aleppo since it was first surrounded by government troops in mid-July, and the UN warned Thursday it was distributing its last remaining food rations in the rebel districts.

The UN’s food agency, FAO, said on Tuesday that a farming crisis across war-torn Syria has reduced food production to a record low and raised fear that people will be forced to flee famine.

On Sunday, east Aleppo residents received text messages from the army warning rebels to leave within 24 hours.

a farming crisis across war-torn syria has reduced food production to a record low