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Strikes hit east Aleppo after weeks of relative calm
The heaviest bombardment in weeks hit Syria's rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Tuesday morning while warplanes were visible in the sky, a civil defense official said."It's all air strikes and parachute bombs. Today, the bombing is violent... There hasn't been this kind of attack in more than 15 days," said Ibrahim Abu al-Laith. Three hospitals in Aleppo have been hit by air raids in the past 24 hours, leaving medical staff and patients maimed, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it could not immediately determine whether the strikes in Aleppo had been carried out by Russian or Syrian government aircraft. One hospital in the village of Awijel in the west of the province was hit during the night. Among the maimed were patients who had been moved there after a hospital in the nearby village of Kafr Naha was hit on Monday, the Britannia-based monitoring group said. A third hospital -- in the town of Atareb -- was hit five times in the early hours of Monday, the group added. The strikes destroyed operating rooms and the hospital pharmacy, damaged ambulances and maimed medical staff. The hospitals in Atareb and Kafr Naha have both been hit by previous air strikes. Russia's Defence Ministry has said that Russian missile strikes did not hit the Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday, according to Interfax news agency. The ministry said Russian and Syrian jets had not bombed Aleppo for the last 28 days, Interfax reported. Human rights groups have accused the Syrian government and its ally Russia of deliberately targeting medical facilities in rebel-held areas, a claim both Damascus and Moscow deny. In recent months, the government has been engaged in a major offensive aimed at recapturing rebel-held areas of Aleppo. Some of the main hospitals in the city's eastern sector have been destroyed by the accompanying air and artillery bombardment. Posted by: Fred 2016-11-16 |
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