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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syrian, Russian jets pound rebel areas |
| 2016-11-17 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Air strikes pounded neighbourhoods around a children's hospital and a blood bank in rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Wednesday in a second day of renewed bombing that has killed at least 32 people, a war monitor, medics and emergency workers said. "Russian military planes were seen all night until morning in several regions of Idlib" in northwestern Syria, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "The regime air force bombed eastern sectors of Aleppo," Syria’s divided second city, Abdel Rahman told AFP. The air raids formed part of a wider military escalation by the Syrian government and allies including Russia, which fired coordinated volleys of missiles at rebels on Tuesday and for the first time used its only aircraft carrier. The Syrian Observatory said the air strikes on eastern Aleppo on Wednesday alone killed at least 21 people, including five children and an emergency worker. They were carried out by either Russian or Syrian warplanes, it said. The Observatory said districts struck included al-Shaar, al-Sukkari, al-Sakhour and Karam al-Beik. Air raids also continued in the countryside west of Aleppo from which rebels have launched assaults on government-held areas. An attack on the village of Batbo killed at least 19 people including three children, the Observatory said. Moscow has denied reports that its jets have hit Aleppo in the renewed wave of bombardment, and said it was sticking to a moratorium on air strikes in the city. Tuesday's bombing run on eastern Aleppo appeared to mark the end of a pause inside the city declared by Russia on Oct. 18 which Syria's military had also largely observed. The Observatory and residents said the city's east was hit by rocket fired from jets, barrel bombs dropped from helicopters and artillery from government forces. "The helicopters won't stop for a single moment," Bebars Mishal, a civil defence worker in rebel-held Aleppo, told Rooters. "Right now, the bombing won't let up." Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke of a "major operation" which saw the first missions carried out by warplanes taking off from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier that arrived off Syria last week. The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a moratorium on Russian air strikes against targets in Aleppo remained in place for the time being. |
| Posted by:Fred |