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| Aleppo residents tell of onslaught as airstrikes enter second day | Aleppo residents tell of onslaught as airstrikes enter second day |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Residents of rebel-held east Aleppo have described scenes of devastation, with activists claiming that both Syrian and Russian warplanes have attacked the city hours after the announcement of a major new offensive. | |
| After one of the heaviest and most sustained nights of bombardment the city has seen, activists said they had recorded at least 81 deaths on Friday in the province. But they cautioned that even that number was probably an underestimate as many people remained missing or had not yet been pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings. | |
| One attack, on a town west of Aleppo city called Bashqateen, killed 15 members of one family who had been sheltering in a residential building housing internally displaced refugees, activists said. | |
| As heavy bombing entered a second day, three medical facilities and two centres belonging to the White Helmets, a volunteer rescue group, were also hit in airstrikes that disabled some of their vehicles, cut off roads in the city and left victims trapped in the rubble. The White Helmets said more than 40 buildings were destroyed. | |
| Activists posted images of massive craters from the city that they alleged were the first instances of warplanes dropping bunker buster bombs – a claim the Guardian could not independently verify. One doctor in the city described waking up to what he said felt like a powerful tremor in the ground as a consequence of the bombs. | |
| “Are we in the era of technology and civilisation?” said a resident of eastern Aleppo. “Is this Russian civilisation and democracy? The killing of children, women and elderly people?” | |
| In a stark illustration of the challenges facing rescuers on the ground, dramatic footage emerged of a girl being pulled from the ruins of a building and being rushed away for treatment. Five-year-old Rawan Alowsh could be heard wailing on the footage, broadcast by Sky News from the Bab al-Nairab district of Aleppo. | |
| Rawan was shown later on Friday recovering in hospital. Neither her parents nor her four siblings were reported to have survived the attack. | |
| Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial capital, is divided into a western portion controlled by the government and an eastern area held by rebels. The eastern part has been besieged for two months, with an estimated 250,000 people in dire need of humanitarian aid. | Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial capital, is divided into a western portion controlled by the government and an eastern area held by rebels. The eastern part has been besieged for two months, with an estimated 250,000 people in dire need of humanitarian aid. |
| Medics in the eastern districts spoke of their despair at international efforts to alleviate their suffering and anger at the continued assault on the population after the collapse of a brief ceasefire. Bara’a, a nurse at the M2 hospital, a code that doctors in Aleppo use to obscure the location of medical facilities, said she had witnessed several children brought in with severe injuries on Friday. | |
| “It is so saddening,” she said. “The strikes and massacres do not stop. Bombings, siege, homelessness, exhaustion, fear, manpower shortage. The silence of the world is killing us.” | |
| Graphic photographs from the bombed-out streets and homes of Aleppo showed rescuers attempting to dig out bodies – many of them children’s – from the rubble. They also depicted parents in mourning and weeping for their dead children. | |
| “Anger has filled everyone who remains in this city of rubble,” said Bara’a. “Many of the wounded are children, and when you look in their eyes they weep and say we have nothing left. Curse this justice. They lose their limbs and become disabled for life and their only sin is that they are the children of Syria. | |
| “They have burned their childhood and their innocence and made them homeless in their country and all we get in return are words and promises from outside. God curse humanity if this is what it has become.” | “They have burned their childhood and their innocence and made them homeless in their country and all we get in return are words and promises from outside. God curse humanity if this is what it has become.” |
| The Syrian military announced a new offensive on Thursday as the US secretary of state, John Kerry, met his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other foreign ministers on the margins of a UN summit in New York, with the ostensible hope of restoring a week-long truce that collapsed on Monday. | The Syrian military announced a new offensive on Thursday as the US secretary of state, John Kerry, met his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other foreign ministers on the margins of a UN summit in New York, with the ostensible hope of restoring a week-long truce that collapsed on Monday. |
| Activists claimed the government and its Russian allies had deployed phosphorus and cluster munitions as well as barrel and vacuum bombs. It was unclear if government forces were planning an imminent ground incursion into the rebel-held districts, but some observers interpreted the intense shelling as a sign that such an effort would follow in due course. | Activists claimed the government and its Russian allies had deployed phosphorus and cluster munitions as well as barrel and vacuum bombs. It was unclear if government forces were planning an imminent ground incursion into the rebel-held districts, but some observers interpreted the intense shelling as a sign that such an effort would follow in due course. |
| Scouts on the city’s eastern outskirts reported that pro regime positions, which are dominated by Iraqi militias, were making plans to advance in large numbers. | |
| Abu Yousef, a former teacher from the Bustan al-Qasr district of east Aleppo, said: “For many months now the Shia militias have gathered near the airport. They are Iraqis mainly, and they came here in big numbers in July. There are several thousand of them and they are very sectarian. They do the fighting, the Iranians give the orders and the Syrians army follows. All the eastern approaches to the city have been destroyed. And the bombing today was crazy. Rubble is bouncing around. They are dropping every type of bomb they have. They are getting ready to invade.” | |
| A Syrian military source told Agence France-Presse the timing of the ground operation would “depend on the results of the strikes and the situation on the ground”. | A Syrian military source told Agence France-Presse the timing of the ground operation would “depend on the results of the strikes and the situation on the ground”. |
| Activists said the government of Bashar al-Assad also bombed one of two water distribution plants in the opening move of what the military command described as an operation to reclaim the opposition-controlled eastern districts of the city. “We need a miracle to save us from inevitable death,” said a doctor in the city. | Activists said the government of Bashar al-Assad also bombed one of two water distribution plants in the opening move of what the military command described as an operation to reclaim the opposition-controlled eastern districts of the city. “We need a miracle to save us from inevitable death,” said a doctor in the city. |
| But one western diplomat said he did not believe that the rebel-held districts were in immediate danger of a ground incursion. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the diplomat said that Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had even denied there was any offensive planned to retake Aleppo at a meeting of the International Syria Support Group on Thursday. | |
| “It seems highly improbable that there would be a quick defeat of eastern Aleppo,” the diplomat said. “The only way to take it is with such a monstrous atrocity that it would be remembered for decades or generations. To take it quickly, much of Aleppo would be destroyed.” | |
| The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said more than 100 airstrikes had targeted eastern Aleppo since Thursday night, including 30 on Friday alone. | The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said more than 100 airstrikes had targeted eastern Aleppo since Thursday night, including 30 on Friday alone. |
| Locals shared several images and videos showing the devastation caused by the airstrikes, which they said had left so many dead and wounded that intensive care units in local hospitals had been mostly filled with victims. | Locals shared several images and videos showing the devastation caused by the airstrikes, which they said had left so many dead and wounded that intensive care units in local hospitals had been mostly filled with victims. |
| A resident who lives near one of the bombed White Helmets centres said: “Dozens of wounded are still under the rubble because there are few methods of transportation in the city besides the emergency vehicles in the hospitals.” | A resident who lives near one of the bombed White Helmets centres said: “Dozens of wounded are still under the rubble because there are few methods of transportation in the city besides the emergency vehicles in the hospitals.” |
| The official Syrian army statement declaring the offensive followed several days of bombing of eastern Aleppo with barrel bombs dropped from helicopters and airstrikes by warplanes, which intensified on Thursday. The statement called for civilians to head to Syrian regime checkpoints to be escorted to safety. | The official Syrian army statement declaring the offensive followed several days of bombing of eastern Aleppo with barrel bombs dropped from helicopters and airstrikes by warplanes, which intensified on Thursday. The statement called for civilians to head to Syrian regime checkpoints to be escorted to safety. |
| In New York, Kerry said the only way to curb the bloodshed was for “the ones who have the air power in this part of the conflict to simply stop using it”. | In New York, Kerry said the only way to curb the bloodshed was for “the ones who have the air power in this part of the conflict to simply stop using it”. |
| “Absent a major gesture like this we don’t believe there is a point in making more promises or issuing more plans or announcing something that can’t be enforced or reached,” he said. | “Absent a major gesture like this we don’t believe there is a point in making more promises or issuing more plans or announcing something that can’t be enforced or reached,” he said. |
| “We can’t go out and say we have an agreement when we don’t. Nor do we tell our partners there is a cessation when there isn’t. The simple reality is that we can’t resolve the crisis if one side is unwilling to do what is necessary to avoid escalation. | “We can’t go out and say we have an agreement when we don’t. Nor do we tell our partners there is a cessation when there isn’t. The simple reality is that we can’t resolve the crisis if one side is unwilling to do what is necessary to avoid escalation. |
| “We have exchanged ideas with the Russians and we plan to consult tomorrow with respect to those ideas. If the Russians come back to us with constructive proposals we will listen.” | “We have exchanged ideas with the Russians and we plan to consult tomorrow with respect to those ideas. If the Russians come back to us with constructive proposals we will listen.” |
| A senior US official said the Syrian declaration of a new offensive had further undermined hope of restoring the ceasefire. Asked what the US would do if the Russian and Syrian governments did not respond with an end to the air campaign, the official said “obviously this is something we are giving a lot of thought to ourselves”. | A senior US official said the Syrian declaration of a new offensive had further undermined hope of restoring the ceasefire. Asked what the US would do if the Russian and Syrian governments did not respond with an end to the air campaign, the official said “obviously this is something we are giving a lot of thought to ourselves”. |
| Since Monday, the Syrian air force has stepped up its bombing of rebel-held areas, and Russia and Syria have been accused of involvement in an attack on a relief convoy outside Aleppo, which the UN has deemed a potential war crime. | Since Monday, the Syrian air force has stepped up its bombing of rebel-held areas, and Russia and Syria have been accused of involvement in an attack on a relief convoy outside Aleppo, which the UN has deemed a potential war crime. |