Dozens killed in the latest Aleppo strikes

BEIRUT— At least 26 civilians were killed in fresh government airstrikes on the contested city of Aleppo, Syrian activists said Sunday, as the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting on the spiralling violence in Syria.

At the start of that meeting, the UN’s top envoy to Syria accused the government of unleashing “unprecedented military violence” against civilians in Aleppo.

Staffan de Mistura said Syria’s declaration of a military offensive to retake rebel-held eastern Aleppo has led to one of the worst weeks of the 5 1/2-year war with dozens of airstrikes against residential areas and buildings causing scores of civilian deaths.

He said the offensive targeting civilians with sophisticated weapons including incendiary devices may amount to war crimes. Medical workers and local officials reported airstrikes on neighbourhoods throughout Aleppo’s rebel-held eastern districts as an announced government offensive entered its fourth day. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 26 civilians killed by 7:30 p.m. and said it expects the toll to rise.

Ibrahim Alhaj of the Syrian Civil Defence search and rescue outfit said hospitals and rescuers have documented the deaths of 43 people so far. Hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and medical workers are expecting many of the wounded to die from a lack of treatment, according to Mohammad Zein Khandaqani, a member of the Medical Council, which operatesin the city’s opposition quarters. “I’ve never seen so many people dying in once place,” he said from a hospital in the city.

Government forces and rebels have so far blocked the UN from establishing regular aid access to besieged areas in Syria. The UN estimates 600,000 Syrians are trapped in different sieges.