Both the Syrian regime and Russia yesterday expanded their air campaign against areas controlled by the opposition, specifically in the city of Aleppo, the countrysides of Idlib and Homs and Ghouta, east of Damascus. Sources reported the death of dozens of people and said that dozens more were missing under the rubble.Activists said that 15 civilians were killed, including four children, and 15 others were wounded during air raids carried out by Russian warplanes that targeted the centre of a popular market in Aleppo’s Al-Firdous neighbourhood that is under the control of the opposition. Abu Mohammed Al-Shami, a nurse in a field hospital in Aleppo, told the news outlet Syria News Desk that Russian warplanes used two missiles during the raid on the market whilst hundreds of civilians were buying necessities. He added that the injured were rushed to a field hospital for treatment and that some of them were critically injured. Three people with head injuries were placed in intensive care and some people had limbs amputated. Al-Shami added that civil defence teams are still searching for missing people under the rubble and pointed out that the bombing led to the destruction of shops and residential buildings.
The Syrian regime’s forces have been attacking the eastern neighbourhoods in Aleppo since the 22nd of September. Since then, clashes have been taking place in various areas including the Bustan Al-Basha and Al-Sheikh Saeed neighbourhoods in the south of the city.
For its part, the news agency Shahba Press reported that the Al-Firdous neighbourhood was the target of several air raids carried out by the regime’s aircraft. Twelve people were killed, others were injured and buildings were damaged as a result. The agency also reported that the Kallaseh neighbourhood was the target of four Russian air raids and that this caused a lot of damage to buildings. These air raids come after a bloody day in which the number of those killed rose to 55 and many were injured during Russian raids on Aleppo and its countryside.
In addition to this, government forces stationed in the towns Nubul and Al-Zahra targeted the towns of Hiyan and Biyanoon in the Aleppo countryside, which are controlled by the opposition, with 25 rockets, some of which were Elephant rockets. Houses and other buildings were destroyed according to reports by activists.
Meanwhile, a woman and her two children were killed and more than 8 people were injured in the Idlib countryside yesterday after Russian warplanes targeted villages in the eastern Idlib countryside with thermobaric rockets.
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Russian jets resumed heavy bombing of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Tuesday after several days of relative calm, a rebel official and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Air strikes mostly hit the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood, Zakaria Malhifji of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group told Reuters.
“There is renewed bombardment and it is heavy,” he said.
The Observatory said the death toll from bombing in Bustan al-Qasr, Fardous and other neighborhoods rose to at least 25, with scores of wounded.
At least 50 civilians were killed by strikes on the rebel-held part of the city and nearby villages controlled by insurgents, residents and rescue workers said. In Bustan al Qasr, residents said, the strikes hit a medical center and a children’s playground.
The Syrian army, backed by Iranian-backed militias, also said it had consolidated its control of the al Jandoul traffic circle at a major road intersection on the northern outskirts of Aleppo.
Moscow and Damascus reduced air raids in the northern city last week. The Syrian army said that was partly to allow civilians to leave opposition-held eastern neighborhoods.
The Syrian government said rebels holed up in Aleppo can leave with their families if they lay down their arms. Insurgents denounced that offer as a deception.
President Bashar al-Assad seeks the complete recapture of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the 5 1/2-year war, which has been divided between government and opposition control for years.
Assad’s Russian allies have meanwhile built up its forces in Syria after a brief ceasefire collapsed last month.
Since Russia intervened in the war a year ago, the government’s side has gained the upper hand on numerous fronts, including Aleppo, where the opposition-held sector has been completely encircled for weeks.
Insurgents have advanced elsewhere, including in Hama province further south, where they captured a series of towns and villages last month. But in recent days, government forces have regained some of that ground.
In the southern city of Deraa, which is split between government and rebel control, insurgent shelling of a school killed at least five people, including children, on Tuesday, the Observatory and state media reported.
Rebels denied they fired at the school. Residents reported the same death toll.
Near the Turkish border, rebels backed by Turkey and a US-led coalition closed in on the ISIS-held village of Dabiq, the site of an apocalyptic prophesy central to the militant group’s ideology.
Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel groups have been pushing south into ISIS’s territory in an operation backed by Turkey since Aug. 24, and have taken more villages near Dabiq in recent days.
But hundreds of mines planted by the militants were delaying their progress, rebels said. The militants even retook the villages of Ihtimlat and Kafra only hours after the FSA fighters seized them, rebels said.
“They planted along their front lines of defense hundreds of mines,” a rebel from the Failaq al Sham group said. Now the goal of FSA forces was to retake the town of Soran, an ISIS stronghold in the area, before moving on to Dabiq, he said.