Death toll rises in bombing of Aleppo
An intensive day of bombing in Syria’s besieged rebel-held Aleppo city left at least 25 people dead, including five children, overwhelming rescue workers who continued a day later to search for survivors under the rubble, according to activists and a civil defence spokesman.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday’s bombings killed 25 people. But the Syrian Civil Defence, a team of first responders in rebel-held areas, and activist media platform Aleppo Media Centre put the death toll at 41.
The bombings resumed on Tuesday and continued into Wednesday, shattering a relative lull in the nearly month-old intensive aerial campaign from Syrian and Russian warplanes on the stricken territory.
The Observatory said at least 358 civilians have been killed in eastern Aleppo since a US-Russian ceasefire collapsed on September 19. The UN says over 100 children have been killed in the campaign, which has also included a limited ground offensive.
Syria Civil Defence workers pulled at least one boy alive from under the rubble on Tuesday, amid cheers from onlookers in eastern Aleppo’s al-Fardous neighbourhood. The boy emerged covered in dust and dazed from the flattened building, gripping his rescuer tightly. His mother survived but remains in critical condition, said Ibrahim al-Haj, a member of the first-responder team, also known as the White Helmets. The boy had lost his father and brother in previous bombings, according to al-Haj.
At least 14 people were killed in the bombing in al-Fardous, according to the civil defence and Aleppo Media Centre. A bombing in the adjacent Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood left 25 dead, according to both groups.
The UN Security Council is deadlocked over how to respond to the Aleppo crisis. The US and Russia have failed to reach an agreement on renewing the short-lived ceasefire. International aid groups and UN agencies have appealed for a halt to the violence to allow aid to the besieged territory. No assistance has entered Aleppo since July while hospitals, medical facilities and rescue vehicles have all come under attack.
