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REGIME AIRCRAFT POUNDED rebel areas of Syria’s second city Aleppo today, hitting a clinic just days after a strike destroyed a hospital, killing two doctors and sparking an international outcry.
More than 200 civilians have been killed in Aleppo over the past week as rebels have pounded government-held neighbourhoods with rocket and artillery fire and the regime has hit rebel areas with air raids.
The bloodshed has brought a 27 February ceasefire between government forces and non-jihadist rebels to the verge of collapse and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the northern metropolis and other battleground areas.
A nurse was among several people wounded when the air strike hit the clinic in the rebel-held Al-Marja neighbourhood, the civil defence known as the White Helmets said.
The clinic, which had been providing dental services and treatment for chronic illnesses for about five years, was badly damaged.
An AFP photographer said he heard nearly a dozen air raids within the space of a few minutes, followed by the wail of ambulances.
“The planes didn’t sleep and didn’t let us sleep either,” one resident of the densely populated Bustan al-Qasr district told AFP.
The earth is shaking beneath our feet.
At least two civilians were killed in the strikes on Friday, one of them a child, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The rebels bombarded government-held areas with rocket and artillery fire, killing three people as they were leaving a mosque after the main weekly prayers, state television reported.
In rebel areas, Friday prayers were cancelled because of the air strikes.
‘Deliberate strike’
It was the second time this week that an airstrike had hit one of the few medical facilities still operating in rebel areas.
Late on Wednesday, air strikes hit the Al-Quds hospital and a nearby block of flats in the Sukkari neighbourhood, killing 30 people, including one of the last paediatricians still working in the east of the city.
US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed “outrage” over the hit on the hospital, saying it appeared to be “a deliberate strike on a known medical facility”.
He called on Moscow to press its Damascus ally “to stop attacking civilians, medical facilities, and first responders, and to abide fully by the cessation of hostilities.”
Al-Quds was supported by both Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The ICRC has warned that Aleppo is “on the brink of humanitarian disaster”.
“Everyone here fears for their lives and nobody knows what is coming next,” said Valter Gros, who heads the ICRC’s Aleppo office.
Thursday was the deadliest day in Aleppo since the violence flared last week, with 54 civilians killed, according to the Observatory.
“It is the worst day in Aleppo in five years. The regime did not spare a single neighbourhood,” one resident told AFP.
‘Aleppo is burning’
An online campaign to halt the carnage picked up speed, with Twitter users posting pictures of destroyed buildings in flames with the hashtag #AleppoIsBurning.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said attacks that target civilians are “inexcusable” violations of humanitarian law.
“There must be accountability for these crimes,” he said.
Aleppo was once Syria’s economic powerhouse, but it has been ravaged by fighting since 2012 when rebels seized the east of the city, confining the government to the west.
The worsening bloodshed has raised fears for the ceasefire in other areas of Syria and called into question the future of peace talks in Geneva that have now gone into recess.
In what would probably be the death knell for the tattered truce, the Syrian army is poised to launch an offensive to retake the whole of Aleppo and the surrounding province.
Leading pro-government daily Al-Watan said it would begin in the next few days.
“Now is the time to launch the battle for the complete liberation of Aleppo,” the paper said, adding that it “will not take long to begin, nor to finish”.
Control of Aleppo province is divided between a myriad of warring armed groups — jihadists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, Kurdish militia and various rebel factions as well as the army.
The province is heavily fought over because of its supply lines to neighbouring Turkey.
Since the conflict in Syria erupted in 2011, more than 270,000 people have been killed and millions more been forced from their homes.
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Any wonder people are escaping at the rate they are?
Exactly, and these are the people us bigots here want to help because they need it badly.
Not the economic migrants from elsewhere bloating the tide of humanity at Europes door
I have absolutely no issue with helping genuine Syrian refugees fleeing this terror. On the other hand a structured plan is needed to help Syrians return once the conflict has ended and giving them the tools they need to rebuild the country.
blame mother Russia
Agree 100% Jason
Be careful what you believe to be the truth amongst the propaganda from Syria and the Turkish/western media….
America or Isreal bombs a hospital and they’re the devil. Russian-backed Syrian government forces bomb a hospital and people shouldn’t rush to judgement?
Nice to know at least that the pro-Russians believe fully in the concept of double-standards.
Stephen…on this topic you wont find balanced and fair on AlJazeera,Fox or CNN….
Jason…i take it you have seen the bearded gentlemen on the internet gleefully run for cover as they wait for their home made “hell cannons” to discharge their home made projectiles? Im not easily convinced of the accuracy of any reports played up and repeated ad nauseum by western media….the truth WILL emerge in days.
Jason: No doubt that hypocrisy does exist, but you can hardly claim to be immune to hypocrisy yourself. Following the bombing of the MSF hospital in Afghanistan you did offer rationalisations for it and said it wasn’t a war crime.
I somehow doubt you’ll be making the same rationalisations in this instance.
When American or Israeli military forces bomb a hospital as in Kunduz and Gaza, it’s usually reported by our media sources as a “regrettable mistake”. If the Syrian army make the same ‘mistake’ in Aleppo, it’s called an “outrage”.
How’s that for pro-western media double standards ?
Rebels attack
Fail to advance, suffer heavy losses
Shell civilians in frustration
Government retaliates on their positions
FSA/IS plays victim card on Internet
Ian…that sums it up.
Just watched a TV The other evening, nothing in that conflict is just black and white, there are parts of cities are just piles of rubble and other parts of cities where life goes on in a “normal” fashion. Large sections of the country have never heard a shot fired and others hear it every day. There are no good guys, guys change sides all the time, defecting from and to the regime and the same with the “opposition” forces. One militia command er stated the to get any lasting “peace” everyone has to sit at the negotiating table (except ISIS)
Bill…i think i watched that prog…an american production?
@ Peter, it was on PBS (a us channel) it didn’t really have any particular real “angle”
Bill..thats right..it was a toss up between vincent browne or Syria…Suuria won.
Yeah I seen that programme. An American reporter showed both view points. Crazy situation. Western looking secular life style in one place, carnage in the next place
Hell on earth.
How can people live in the midst of such destruction.
The arms industry is the problem,uk industry 1 billion a year,someone has to use them,someone has to die
We kind of thought this way in Ukraine, up before Russia annexed Crimea and sent “volonteers” and weapons to the East of Ukraine. Our defence industry was nearly ruined, army was only on paper. We wanted to be neutral. It does not work this way nowadays same like 200 years ago. It is sad reality. The saying ““Help Your Own Army, If You Don’t Want To Feed Someone Else’s” is still very important today.
The possibility is that it was Russian planes that did it, although they’ll never admit it, just like they “never” sent soldiers into Ukraine, or shot down the passenger jet.
I would have to ask why every regime plane has not been destroyed by now? On the ground, that is. With their satellites and drones the US must surely have had the capability to accomplish the task.
Now that the Russians are heavily involved it will be much harder to do. A missed opportunity.
Aleppo, a lovely city now ruined, it’s people paying the price of a power struggle
The Russians as an ally of Assad were always involved.
Bombing all the stationary aircraft early in the campaign would have set off a conflict with Russia and enabled the jihadists to run wild
Foghorn, it’s not a crime to migrate to earn a better living. I am always shocked at the ease with which ppl judge other ppl.
“It’s not a crime to migrate to earn a better living”
Well actually that depends where you’re migrating to
To migrate isn’t a crime, but to try and claim “refugee” status when you aren’t fleeing a country at war or where you are persecuted, that’s another thing.
have your say