Assad's siege in Aleppo, Idlib kills mostly civilians
by Associated Press
BEIRUTNov 15, 2016 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Associated Press
Nov 15, 2016 12:00 am
As Bashar al-Assad forces kept up their campaign against opposition areas in the country's north, civilians has continued to become target of the ongoing war in Syria. As of Sunday evening, Syrian Civil Defense's Ibrahim al-Haj said Syrian regime artillery shelling in the al-Salheen neighborhood of besieged eastern Aleppo killed a mother, her four children and her husband traveling in a car. Other shelling killed a child, a woman and three men in two different neighborhoods of the besieged territory, al-Haj said. The violence comes a day after Assad troops repelled an opposition offensive on western parts of Aleppo city launched in late October.
While airstrikes on eastern Aleppo city have subsided, aerial bombings of opposition-held western parts of Aleppo province continued. The Syrian Civil Defense, which operates in opposition-held areas, said one of its centers was bombed in rural Aleppo and put out of service in airstrikes on the town of Atareb. The strikes also killed three people, including two children.
Aleppo has been deeply divided since 2012. The faltering opposition offensive was designed to break Assad's siege on the opposition-held eastern Aleppo.
Assad's siege has left an estimated 275,000 people trapped with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign. The opposition offensive started after Russia, a major Syrian regime ally, said it would halt airstrikes to allow civilians to leave eastern Aleppo. The opposition refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate allowing aid into the besieged area, amid wide anticipation of an imminent Assad's offensive.
Residents of eastern Aleppo said Sunday that for days they have received text messages urging them to leave in the next 24 hours. It was not possible to immediately verify the authenticity of the messages or who sent them. Syrian regime aircraft had previously dropped fliers on the eastern districts also urging residents to leave and make use of the Russian-declared passageways to evacuate the besieged district.
In opposition-held northern Idlib province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Aleppo Today media group said airstrikes killed an entire family of a mother and her four children.
Near the capital Damascus, in the western Ghouta region, opposition activists said airstrikes in Khan al-Shih hit a mosque around dawn Sunday, killing at least two people, including the mosque's cleric.
The local Khan al-Shih media center and the Syrian Civil Defense in Rural Damascus reported the airstrikes. The Observatory also reported the strike on the mosque, and the subsequent two deaths. It was not immediately possible to verify if the airstrikes were from Russian or Syrian regime aircraft. The Khan al-Shih media center showed footage of extensive damage to the mosque. The town of Khan al-Shih has been the scene of intensive fighting and airstrikes for weeks amid a tightening Assad's siege.
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