Dozens of people have been killed in fresh strikes on rebel-held sections of Aleppo after days of relative calm. A monitor claims the regime forces have been slowly advancing into the besieged areas.
Image: Reuters/A. Ismail
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Russian jets resumed their bombing of Aleppo with at least 25 people killed on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Residents from the scene and rescue workers put he death toll at 50, while also including villages near Aleppo controlled by the insurgents.
"This is the heaviest Russian bombardment since the Syrian regime announced it would reduce the bombardment" last week, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Both Moscow and Damascus said the reduction was aimed to allow civilians to leave the affected neighborhoods. The move came at a time of growing international outrage over the fate of 250,000 civilians still living in the opposition-controlled areas.
"In the past few days there were raids; but they targeted areas where mainly fighting was taking place between the rebels and the regime forces, not neighborhoods inside Aleppo," Rahman told the dpa news agency on Tuesday.
Battlefield for end-times
The regime forces were now moving in on the rebel-held areas of Aleppo, street by street, according to the Observatory.
The London-based monitor also reported that rebels shelled a primary school in the southern city of Deraa, killing at least five children. The rebels deny targeting the school.
Near the Turkish border, the Turkey-backed militia closed in on the Islamic State-held village of Dabiq, the site of great symbolic value among Islamic fundamentalists. According to the Islamic State preachers, the village would be the backdrop of the key battle between Muslims and a Christian army in the end times.
Exhausted 'outrage'
The renewed bombing of Aleppo is likely to further damage the relations between Russia and Western powers. Last week, the US announced that a suspension of cooperation with Russia over Moscow's failure to rein in Bashar al-Assad. On Sunday, France's President Francois Hollande said the campaign in Aleppo amounted to a war crime, with rising tensions eventually prompting Vladimir Putin to cancel his visit to Paris on Tuesday.
On the same day, the UK's top diplomat Boris Johnson called for anti-war activists to gather outside the Russian embassy in London, saying that anti war groups were not showing enough "outrage" over Aleppo.
Johnson said the "wells of outrage are growing exhausted" after years of fighting in Syria.
As Syria war drags, MSF warns of Aleppo crisis
As the war in Syria drags on, the humanitarian situation in Aleppo has grown steadily worse. The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned of a major crisis.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/B. el Halebi
A city on the brink
About 250,000 people are trapped in the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo as food and vital supplies dwindle, MSF reported on Thursday. Hospitals are straining to treat the number of patients, and the only road leading to areas not controlled by the government has been cut off.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/M. Sultan
Civilian casualties continue to mount
Even as besieged Syrians struggle amid food and supply shortages, attacks launched on civilians by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad continue. Hospitals have been repeatedly bombed, and government-led airstrikes have led to dozens of deaths over the past several months.
Image: Getty Images/B.Al-Halabi
Food and supplies are running low
MSF has been providing trapped civilians with food and supplies since 2014. The NGO's last shipment to Aleppo took place in April, when trucks were permitted to deliver 330 cubic meters (11,650 cubic feet) of equipment and provisions.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O.-H. Kadour
Russian proposal rejected
Earlier this week, the Syrian and Russian governments proposed to open humanitarian corridors leading from the besieged parts of Aleppo to government-controlled areas seen in the background here. Their plan came shortly after forces overtook key rebel supply routes leading into the rebel areas.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/K. Al-Masri
Fears of a regime takeover
The regime-sanctioned plan was largely dismissed by the international community, with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura saying he wasn't even informed about it. Trapped activists and civilians, meanwhile, say it's an attempt to restore government control to the rest of Aleppo.
Image: Getty Images/T.Mohammed
Renewed calls for ceasefire
De Mistura called on Russia to hand administration of the humanitarian corridors over to the United Nations, as German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Moscow to establish a ceasefire.
Image: picture-alliance/AA
A clear message
"We once again demand the warring parties respect the rules of war," Pablo Marco, MSF's Middle East operations manager, said in the report. "The message is clear: stop bombing hospitals and civilian infrastructures, allow the severely sick and wounded to be evacuated, and do not cut the supply of food, drugs and vital goods into the city."
