Aleppo ‘dying’ as Assad launches ferocious blitz and water is shut off
UN fears ‘catastrophe’ after bombs kill dozens
ALEPPO is ‘dying’ after nearly two million people were left without water and at least 115 were killed in ferocious bombing, the UN said last night. Countless more victims were feared buried alive under rubble yesterday as President Bashar Assad’s Syrian forces tried to reclaim rebel areas. Hostilities had intensified on Friday night when attempts to repair a water pump supplying rebel districts were halted by a fierce bombardment.
In retaliation, the Suleiman al-Halabi pumping station serving the rest of the city was switched off yesterday.
Kieran Dwyer, spokesman for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said water was now being used as a weapon of war by both sides and warned the results could be ‘catastrophic’.
Mr Dwyer said the Bab alNairab pumping station supplying rebel-held parts of Aleppo was damaged on Thursday and subsequent strikes had made repairs impossible.
He said: ‘That pumping station pumps water to the entire population of the eastern part of city – that’s at least 200,000 people.
‘Then in retaliation for that attack a nearby pumping station that pumps water to the entire western part of the city – upwards to 1.5million people – was deliberately switched off.’
Fears are growing that desperate families will be forced to
‘It’s just the latest act of inhumanity’
use contaminated water carrying diseases that are a high risk to young children.
Unicef deputy director Justin Forsyth added: ‘Aleppo is slowly dying, and the world is watching, and the water is being cut off and bombed – it’s just the latest act of inhumanity.’
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group monitoring the conflict, said 25 people were killed in fresh bombardments yesterday, following reports of 91 deaths in Friday’s bombings.
Footage of children being pulled, seemingly alive, from the rubble emerged at the weekend and the death toll was expected to rise.
Many of the wounded were in a critical condition and rescuers were still searching for life amongst the bombed buildings.
The latest offensive was launched after a ceasefire collapsed on Monday.
A pause in fighting, agreed by Russia and the US earlier this month, was intended to improve aid deliveries and lead to joint operations against Islamic State and other militant groups.
But hopes the truce would be extended collapsed as the US-led coalition apologised for killing more than 62 Syrian soldiers in one of its air strikes.
Residents in the rebel-held eastern part of the city described yesterday’s bombard- ment as more destructive than anything they had seen before. Many buildings were destroyed and craters were left several metres wide and deep.
Ammar al Selmo, the head of the civil defence rescue service in the opposition-held east, said: ‘Our teams are responding but are not enough to cover this amount of catastrophe.’
Rebel officials said yesterday’s that air strikes hit at least four areas of opposition-held eastern Aleppo and believe they were mostly carried out by Russian warplanes.
Syrian government forces have also captured a Palestinian refugee camp just north of the city.