20 killed as airstrikes pound besieged Aleppo
Airstrikes have pounded rebel-held eastern Aleppo, killing more than 20 people on the third day of a renewed air campaign there, Syrian activists and rescue workers said.
The Russian military meanwhile said airstrikes in the rebel-held province of Idlib earlier this week killed at least 30 members of an al Qaida-linked group, including three commanders.
The strikes are part of a major Syrian and Russian offensive launched earlier this week on opposition-held areas that has killed dozens of people.
In one area, volunteer first responders dug through the rubble for four hours before pulling out a six-year-old child alive. The child's mother was killed in the strikes, said Ibrahim al-Haj, a spokesman for the rescuers, known as the Syrian Civil Defence.
The activist-run Public Services Authority said the Bab al-Nairab water plant was struck with a barrel bomb. Spokesman Ahmad al-Shami said the plant was damaged but is still operating.
"This regime uses any means to add pressure to civilians. It has bombed bakeries and hospitals and has not made an exception for water and electricity," he said.
Airstrikes on Wednesday struck the city's central blood bank and a children's hospital. Medical facilities have repeatedly come under attack during the Syrian conflict, with 126 such incidents this year alone, according to the World Health Organisation.
Doctors Without Borders said the children's hospital and a specialised surgical hospital were hit by Wednesday's strikes.
"Hospital staff managed to move children - including prematurely born babies - from cots and incubators to the basement of the building in order to shelter them from the bombing," said the aid group, which sponsors both hospitals.
Next to our house, I thought the bombs hit me. I don't know if there are people inside this house. - Bana #Aleppo pic.twitter.com/8kF5x6cHeJ
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) November 17, 2016
The Oxfam aid group said the more than 250,000 residents of eastern Aleppo have limited food and clean water as winter approaches, and are at risk of disease outbreaks.
No UN aid has reached eastern Aleppo since July, and the UN has warned that supplies will run out this week. Oxfam said it helped move a generator to the besieged area on Wednesday to improve the water supply.
"Clean water is vital, but it won't stop starvation, never mind protect people from indiscriminate aerial attacks," said Andy Baker, who is leading Oxfam's Syria response.
The Syrian Civil Defence said 28 people were killed in and around Aleppo on Thursday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of local activists, put the death toll at 25.
At least 70 people were killed in northern Syria on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Russia says it is not bombing Aleppo as part of the offensive announced this week, but is instead targeting insurgents in Idlib and the central Homs province.
Just as Judy tells us her fears, we hear a bomb. No child should live like this. #Aleppo pic.twitter.com/ADOBa4LbQE
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) November 17, 2016
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman major general Igor Konashenkov said the strikes targeting al Qaida took place in Idlib on Tuesday, and were launched from Russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which recently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea.
He said three leading members of the al Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front - Muhammad Helala, Abu Jaber Harmuja and Abul Baha al-Asfari - were among those killed. He said al-Asfari had overseen the group's attempts to break the siege of Aleppo.
Al-Asfari had led a moderate rebel group in 2013, and it was not clear if or when he joined the al Qaida-linked group.
An opposition media group known as All4Syria reported that the two other named militants were killed on Tuesday in an airstrike in the village of Kfar Jalis, in the Idlib countryside, that also killed six civilians.
The Observatory's chief Rami Abdurrahman said the airstrike on the jihadi stronghold killed six leading militants, without identifying them.
87 civilians killed today in #Aleppo and its countryside. May they Rest In Peace. pic.twitter.com/G4ZhiU3tt2
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) November 16, 2016
The same village was struck Thursday, the Observatory said, killing six civilians from the same family.
Months of negotiations between the US and Russia failed to cement a long-term cease-fire in Aleppo, which has become the focus of the war between Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him.
Al Qaida's Syrian affiliate is fighting alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State group has no presence in Aleppo.
