Putin nixes trip to Paris amid outcry over Aleppo

MOSCOW • Russian President Vladimir Putin cancelled Tuesday a visit to Paris after the French leader called the recent bombings of the Syrian city of Aleppo a “war crime” and questioned publicly whether it made sense to meet with Putin at all.

The decision to call off next week’s planned trip underscores the increasing divisions between the West and Russia over Moscow’s military aid to Syria’s government in the country’s more than five-year conflict.

French officials have said that they want the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to launch a war crimes investigation into Russian and Syrian airstrikes in Aleppo, which have become a byword for the grave humanitarian crisis unleashed by the Syrian civil war.

Russia says it is only targeting terrorists in Aleppo, and has accused the West of using so- called terrorist groups to seek the downfall of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a key Russian ally. The attacks on Aleppo expanded sharply late last month after the collapse of a ceasefire plan brokered by Russia and the United States.

Airstrikes on rebel- held parts of Aleppo killed at least 14 people Tuesday, while the shelling of a governmentheld neighbourhood in southern Syria hit a school, killing at least six, including children, opposition activists and state media said.

The opposition- held part of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and its former commercial centre, has been battered by an intensive aerial campaign since last month, when the truce collapsed after just a week. Syrian pro-government forces are also conducting a ground offensive into the rebel- held districts, advancing slowly in the north, east and south of the city.

The activist-operated Aleppo Today TV station and Qasioun news agency say bunker-busting bombs were used in an attack on the Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood in rebelheld eastern Aleppo.